Serbia won second place in the group
Apart from the already traditional rivalry, the match also had a preasure for win. With a victory of 38-19, Serbia secured second place and potential progress to the higher group. Namely, Russia was expelled from the competition under the auspices of the European Federation, and due to the group move, one place in the Conference 1 South group should be vacated. All in all, we will wait for the official confirmation, so we will write more on this topic. If Bosnia and Herzegovina wins, with a victory over Turkey, it would take second place.
Great competition cycle
We can be very pleased with the results achieved in this competition cycle. Three victories were achieved, over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andorra and Turkey, while we recorded one close defeat by Bulgaria away 14-11. The spirit of the national team has been restored, finally all the players want to play for the national team. At the head of the national team was Michel Milović, a French strategist of Montenegrin origin, who successfully implemented a system of work that obviously had an immidiate effect. It is also necessary to point out that several young players got a significant role in the game of the national team, which is a real pledge for the future.
Eagles better in the first half
The match started in a high rhythm of both teams. In 7. minute of the match Bosnia had an out in our 10 meters from our try line. The Eagles put good pressure on the home team’s lineout, then got an lineout in the same place. A safe lineout was performed, the danger was eliminated by a strategic kick, and the ball was quickly won in the middle of the field. Istok Totić open fast ball prom penalty, won almost 20 meters, and even more importantly tied several opposing players to himself. A quick ball to the wing left Velibor Srećković, who had a missmatch, where he scored an easy 1 on 1 try for 5-0. Already in 13. minute, Serbia received a penalty in the middle of the field. With a kick in the lineout, we come to a promising position 15 meters from the opponent’s try line. When you have a deadly weapon, then use it the right way. Serbia performed a perfect lineout, formed a maul, which roared through the defense of Bosnia. Đorđe Preradojević secured a try for 10-0.
In 23. minute big mistake of the Eagles in defense, who did not respect the foundation of the setting in defense ruck and allowed the Bosnian scrumhalfof Armin Zadić to walk to the tryline and reduce it to 10-5. In 28. minute the Bosnians have an lineout in the middle of the field, Serbia puts pressure again and wins the ball that comes to Milan Marinkovic who breaks the line of defense and wins about twenty meters. The hosts stop the quick attack of the Eagles in an illegal way, so the referee returns the penalty in the middle of the field. Uroš Babić is confident in the kick and raises the score to 13-5.
In 35. minute the Bosnians break our scrum, and win possession of the ball. Then the ball comes to Miralem Lekić who enters the mismatch with our center line and scores an essay. With successful conversion, the result was reduced to 13-12. In 39. minute Predrag Keglić wins the ball from behind, takes the live ball from the opponent’s hand. Aljoša Avramović shhot boxkick from the ruck, then reaches the ball and with a new kick just in front of the opponent’s player gives himself a chance, easily catches the ball and achieves an try under the post. Babic is secure for 20-12, which is also the final result at half time.
The return of Bosnia and the superiority of the Serbian bench
The second half was marked by the dominance of Bosnia in the scrum. They beat us every scrum, they even demanded that every penalty be performed as a scrum, in order to repeat the sentence, leading to a yellow card for the guests. In 55. they were deceived for a minute and the referee played a penalty for Serbia, which was given the opportunity to kick from a favorable position. Babic was brilliant for 23-12. Bosnia has started to stifle the game with constant scrums. The Eagles helped her with mistakes made out of indiscipline. In 63. minute Bosnia gets a penalty in our 10 meters, looking for scrum, pushing our scrum, where the ball comes to Lekić who scores an try. With the successful transformation, Bosnia is 4 points behind, the result is 23-19 for Serbia. It seemed that the scenario from Starcevo, where Andorra reached the equal end, would be repeated.
However, the momentum was not used by the Bosnian side. While the coach Milović had a long bench that he sent to the fire. In 72. minute, after the player of Bosnia justifiably received a yellow card due to high tacling, the Eagles win an lineout which they develop into a maul. Bosnians somehow manage to control and stop the progress a meter from the essay, however, Vladimir Đukić achieved the try with a quick pick and go action. Babic is cooldheaded with kick for 30-19. Serbia is in a big rush. In 74. minute we take the ball again on the Bosnian lineout, the fast ball comes to Kaspar Strugar, who employs Igor Dejanović with offload, who scores an try for 35-19 in an unstoppable breakthrough.
What an offensive of Serbia. Instead of Bosnia chasing the result, the Eagles held the initiative and possession in their hands. Our bench players completely reversed the situation and quickly blew up the hosts who did not know what happened to them at the end of the match. After a lightning counterattack, Serbia received a penalty in the middle of the field from a good opportunity. Babić successfully complete a penalty kick to set the final score 38-19.
Rugby Serbia National Team:
Vladimir Djukic 5, Istok Totic, Predrag Vranes, Relja Pecanac, Djordje Preradojevic 5, Aleksandar Madjanovic, Damien Bozic, Milan Marinkovic, Julien Matijasevic, Aljosa Avramovic 5, Velibor Sreckovic 5, Aleksandar Djordjevic, Predrag Keglic, Uros Babic 13, Igor Dejanovic 5 , Milan Trujkić, Ivan Rodić, Dušan Jocić, Kaspar Strugar, Aleksandar Andrić, Ivan Voštić, Nemanja Stošić, Stevan Nikolić.
Team captain: Aleksandar Đorđević
Headcoach: Michel Milović
6 takeaways from the game
Excellent offensive and defensive out
What an lineaut Serbia had! Definitely a great lineout with jumpers Božić and Pećanac, who were extremely confident in attacking lineouts. And very dangerous in defense lineouts. The Bosnians did not have a safe flow of the ball from the lineout, thus stopping the conquest of space and possession from the lineout Lineout out was extremely safe and we were able to form a moul out of it, which resulted in two tries on the match. The best way to defend an opponent’s lineout is to jump. That slogan was used by the selected players of the selector Milović, who formed several counterattacks from the successfully won opponent’s lineouts.
Too many unforced passing errors
Too many passing errors that are not the product of pressure from the opposing team. Underconcentration or indiscipline, it doesn’t matter, mostly a big task before the expert staff to correct unnecessary technical shortcomings. Specifically, it cost us a lot in this game, where Bosnia had a dominant scrum. We must mention that it is normal to make mistakes when playing fast, but the number of unforced errors must be reduced to a minimum.
Fast pace
Unlike the match against Andorra, Serbia drastically accelerated the game. The eagles were literally flying across the field. The very fast flow of the ball resulted in a more deadly pace of the game, as well as fast counterattacks that caused problems for the Bosnian defense. If we had a safer flow of the ball from the scrum, the result would certainly have been different in our favor. If we had such a fast game against Andorra, the result would have been more convincing. This high pace makes us happy, because the game is rising to a higher level, which means that we are ready for a higher level of competition.
Problems in scrum
It didn’t take long for Bosnians to discover the insecurity of our scrum. When they found out they were giving us big problems. We had difficulty having a clean ball from the scrum, we often lost possession. We were literally terrorized until the bench players manage to stabilized the scrum, and brought a calmer finish to the game. At one point we thought that was it, that we were going to lose the game to the scrum, thankfully that didn’t happen. We need to take this warning seriously. No player in the prop position is under 35 years of age.
High tackles
When playing against a physically strong team like Bosnia, the basic foundation is to go low in tacles. If you enter high, we will end up in a situation where several players are tied to knocking down the attacker. So it was this time, where we tacle high players of Bosnia and allowed them to conquer space in classic phasis. At this level, this is unacceptable, and must tacle low to prevent the advance of the opponent. An item that coaches need to pay special attention to.
Long bench, great contribution of reserve players
According to Eddie Jones, these are not reserve players, but players who finish the game. Something like baseball logic. We got something like that in the match versus Bosnia. At one point, the hosts squeezed us and reduced the score to 23-19. However, first there were changes in the scrum, which stabilized the statics, and then the players of the back positions who increased the tempo and finally completely destroyed Bosnia in the last ten minutes of the match, where we scored as many as 15 points. Rugby at this level requires that the changes be as good as the starters, so that they can take the lead at the end of the match. It was definitely a huge advantage, which brought us victory.
