Bad weather and good rugby
If asked how they would describe the atmosphere at the opening of the U16s competition, they would simply say four words, bad weather – good rugby. To be honest, it was ideal weather for playing rugby, it rained throughout the tournament, the pitch was great and soft, no puddles or mud. The conditions were created to play good rugby, which we got in the end. The only downside was that rain that stopped people from coming to observe and watch the tournament. That’s why we decided on the phrase bad weather. There were about twenty spectators, who can testify to the excellent matches.
The prediction came true
If you follow our portal, you have certainly read the article announcing the competition in the autumn half-season. We will repeat, in case someone forgets, in the spring the Cup is played in the younger categories, in the fall the Serbian Championships are played. As we mentioned, RK Rad was absolutely dominant in the tournament, he achieved three convincing victories, without conceding an try, we must even say that the opponents did not even have a chance to score tries.
However, the other three teams were very evenly matched. When we say tied, we mean that there were great battles until the last minutes of the games as to who would win. As we mentioned, RK Borac Starčevo and RK Čelik will fight for second place, but after the game shown, RK Dinamo 1954 also enters the competition. It remains to be seen how RK Kruševac will perform, and we think that they will also join the crowd for a high ranking, although it will be a little more difficult for them in the general ranking because they missed the first tournament.
Tournament information:
Date: 17.09.2022.
Temperature: Cloudy with rain, 15 degrees
Kickoff: 14.00h
Reffery: Aleksandar Lelik
Match comessionnaire: Stevan Ilijašević
Serbian Championship: Lear more.
Results:
RK Čelik – RK Dinamo 1954 7-0
RK Rad – RK Borac Starčevo 38-0
RK Dinamo 1954 – RK Borac Starčevo 17-12
RK Chelik – RK Rad 0-29
RK Rad – RK Dinamo 1954 44-0
RK Borac Starčevo – RK Čelik 0-7
Table after the first tournament:
| Поз (Pos) | Екипа (Team) | У(GP) | Б(Pts) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  РК Рад | 4 | 40 |
| 2 |  РК Динамо 1954 | 4 | 28 |
| 2 |  РК Челик | 4 | 28 |
| 4 |  РК Борац Старчево | 3 | 11 |
| 4 |  РК Крушевац | 3 | 11 |
5 takeaways from tournament
RK Rad domination
That is certainly perhaps the biggest impression. Quite simply, RK Rad has a lot of players in their senior year, who have been training for several years, who have been trained at a high level and who justify that high level on the field as well. As we mentioned earlier in the text, Rad did not receive a single try, the opponents were not even close to scoring points. A team in U16s with which a serious game system can be played. If they had not experimented with shooting actions, they would have scored more tries. Don’t think that the other teams are not good, simply Rad is two spears ahead of everyone.
Our opinion is that a greater challenge should be set before such a team, perhaps taking part in some foreign competition if possible, whether it was Romania or Hungary. If you have a dominant team in the younger categories, there is no progress if there is no competition. If there is no competition and progress, you risk losing players due to lack of motivation.
The tie between RK Čelik, RK Dinamo 1954 and RK Borac from Starčevo
If we exclude Rad’s matches, the tournament was very uncertain and interesting. The opening game between Čelik and Dinamo was of high quality, where the winner of the match was not known until the last minute. Both teams had chances to win, in the end it was decided by Zukić’s quick breakthrough in the last moments of the game. Dinamo redeemed itself in the match against Borac, where there was no lack of uncertainty. Until the last moment, Borac had its opportunities, but Begunić finally put an end to the game where Pančevci won 17-12. And in the end, Čelik again defeated Borac in an uncertain game with Šatorović’s try with a score of 7-0. When you play uncertain games, you have the motivation to prepare as well as possible for the next tournament, so we can’t wait to see how the team will look in the second tournament.
Player discipline
Unlike the senior competition, players in the younger categories are disciplined. That is, their discipline is directly related to the discipline and behavior of their coach. When the coach is disciplined and behaves in the spirit of rugby, there are no problems with the players on the field. If you really want everything to be in the spirit of rugby, you must have good prerequisites in order to nurture the positive behavior of all participants on the field. The conditions for everyone must be fair and equal, the organization must be at a high level, the judging must be at a high level, everything must match. Of course, in practice, not everything is positive and joyful like Cinderella getting ready for the ball, when everyone is happy and working for the same goal. But it is very important that the atmosphere is built on positive and constructive aspects, in order to get the final product, which is good and interesting rugby that motivates as many factors as possible to be an integral part of it.
It is necessary to work on regrutation
The teams don’t look bad in terms of numbers, especially if we consider that it’s only the beginning of the season. But we warn, that it is necessary to work non-stop on the recruitment of new players in all categories. Even when someone new starts training at the age of 16, it will be much easier to fit into a team where everyone trains for a long time. It is mandatory to continuously work on increasing the playing staff. After all, the more players in training, the better and more interesting the training.
Rad participated in the tournament with 14 players. They were missing a few players as far as we could tell. It is a team that has a core team that trains for a long time, with a large number of players in training. Celik performed with 13 players, there are a lot of quality players who came out of the U14 pioneers, so the tournaments will be extremely good for them to gain experience. Dinamo surprised us with a large number of players, as many as 16, although they were the youngest in the tournament, but this is proof that we need to work on numbers, because from quantity comes quality. The fighter is scarce in terms of numbers. They must urgently start recruitment and presentations, even in high schools, if they have such an opportunity, that is, if a high school in Pančevo is close to them.
We have an excellent foundation on which to build and build. During the past years, the Rugby Union of Serbia has invested significant resources in working with younger categories, where quality players are obtained by clubs. It is a long-term process, where first of all you have to be patient, you need to constantly upgrade and improve your work with young people. It is serious, hard and time-consuming work. You will not create a rugby player by bringing a 25-year-old onto the field from the gym, a rugby player is created in the younger categories, where when he reaches the seniors he has 8 years of valuable rugby experience.
Alexander Lelik's incredible endurance
It is not our custom for the referee to be one of the impressions we take from the tournament. But this time they would be wrong if it wasn’t so. Aleksandar Lelik managed to carry the entire tournament by himself, and we can take our hats off to him for that. He had an assistant in Marija Stojšić, but still he dispensed justice for more than 3 hours as the chief judge in Starčevo. Not an easy task, but he managed to complete it, as far as we are concerned, very well. It is not in the spirit of rugby to comment on the refereeing, but we must really praise this effort. We think that another referee should have been present because the pace of the rugby was extremely high.
