Serbia is starting a new cycle in the Conference

Finally, the European Rugby Federation announced the groups and pairings for the 2024/2025 season. As many as 21 national teams will participate in the Conference.

Conference competition system

As we mentioned, as many as 21 national teams participate in the Conference group. All teams are divided into 5 groups. The groups were formed according to the geographical principle, with the fact that we did not do well in terms of travel, because we are in the same group as last season. The game is played in a single round, according to the system of each against each other. We have no information about what will happen at the end of the competition, that is, how the playoffs will be played to fill the Trophy group. If we follow last season, the two teams with the best performance should play the final match. But it is not officially written anywhere on the website of the European federation.

Schedule by groups:

Group A: Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Norway and Latvia.

The only group where 4 games will be played in the season, which in our opinion is ideal for this level of competition. We CAN point out that Latvia and Denmark are the favorites in this group.

Group B: Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Ukraine is the absolute favorite in the group, although the Austrians and Hungarians have very strong national teams, and the meeting between them will be very interesting. In our opinion, Slovakia is an outsider.

Group C: Bulgaria, Serbia, Moldova and Turkey.

Moldova is the favorite in our group. As for us, after three defeats last year and the state our rugby is in, it doesn’t give us too much hope. Turkey is on the rise.

Group D: Andorra, Cyprus, Malta and Israel.

The question is how many matches Israel will play because of the state of war in the country. If the situation stabilizes, they should be the main favorites for first place along with Malta.

Group E: The so-called Republic of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Montenegro.

Slovenians are big favorites. Although Bosnia and Herzegovina is not too far behind. It will be interesting to see what Montenegro will look like. The outsiders are definitely from the so-called Republic of Kosovo, but don’t forget that rugby is in great development there.

Photo: Vanja Bejin

A friendly match against the French army

It will be quite interesting to see off the national team this fall. We will play two games. The first match is scheduled against the French Army team, with whom we will play a friendly match on September 28, starting at 2 p.m. at the FK Železnik stadium in the Belgrade suburb of the same name. This match will be an ideal preparation for the official match against Moldova. We hope that we will do 4-5 training sessions before the match, that we will try to rehearse the actions and implement the tactical ideas of our coaching staff. This is what we need to be able to train well for official matches. An ideal opportunity for our players to gain additional experience.

Serbia - Moldova

Match information:

Venue: Železnik, Beograd

Stadium: FL Železnik

Date: 05.10.2024. .

Kickoff: 14:00h

Live Rugby Europe Youtube account

Photo: Vanja Bejin

What can we expect from Serbia against Moldova?

This is an ideal opportunity to get back on the winning track and end the streak of 3 defeats in a row. Hands down, Moldova is the strongest opponent we could face, but they play much weaker away from home. After all, like all teams of this level, because the players who play abroad do not like to come when they have to travel, they prefer when the match is played at home.

It would be an ideal opportunity for us to attract as many players as possible from abroad, who would make a very good team with local players. We have a preparatory game and if we had a good team, we could finally rise and come out of this crisis. Which will be a problem, because rugby 15 has not been played in the domestic competition since the beginning of the year. There is also a problem with the team because we hardly get together for games. However, we believe that the coaching staff informed the players from abroad on time and made a good training team from players from Serbia. That there is a clear vision of what the team will look like and what game plan will be implemented. We hope that the moment is behind us where it is not known until the last hour who will come from abroad and whether all the players from Serbia will perform.

Serbia coach Mišel Milović likes when his teams play fast and at a fast pace. He forces a very mobile scrum, which is capable of developing good play from out and scrum. With dominant and penetrating players from the line from central and wing positions, we can be extremely dangerous and fast for the opponent. Such a Serbia is very difficult to stop. If we repeat the game we played against Bosnia and Herzegovina away from home, we think we can easily be equal with the Moldovans.

Matches in the spring of 2025 .

Two matches await us in 2025 . The first match is scheduled for April 12 when we travel to Turkey. The venue of the match is still unknown. And the second match is against Bulgaria at home, which is scheduled for May 10. The good thing about playing as late as possible in the spring is that most of the matches in the French playoffs at all levels are finished by then, while the English season ends already at the beginning of April. So they would have at their disposal a large number of players from abroad.

How to follow the competition in Conference 1

You can follow the entire competition on our website. As several times before, we will try to cover all the matches in our group, but also in the Conference in general. On our website, you will have the opportunity to look at the updated results, schedule, table and also the list of scorers. And you can watch it all here.