Last season, the U18 juniors had quite intense competition and quite a lot of obligations both in the Championship and at the representative level. A total of 4 tournaments were held in the Serbian championship, while the Serbian national team played a test match in Zagreb against the home team of Croatia, where the Eagles eventually won with a score of 15-0. We must especially mention that the vast majority of U18s performed in the senior championship of groups A and B. We also point out that the years were changed in September and that the U18s players were born in 2004. and in 2005 . And we will only consider them for the ideal team.
This year, a total of 6 teams took part in the Serbian Championship for U18 juniors, namely: RK Rad, RK Borac Starčevo, RK Dinamo 1954, RK Kruševac, BRK Crvena Zvezda and RK Čelik from Zenica. Perhaps there was no uncertainty in the fight for first place in the general ranking, but it was quite interesting in the tournaments. Really very interesting matches were seen, and that’s what makes it particularly important. And it is a competition with uncertain matches, which motivate you to train and be the best you can be. That is why it is vitally important to play as much as possible in continuity in order for players to develop and gain as much experience as possible.
The only thing that remains regrettable is that no match was played in rugby 15 except for the match against Croatia. We mentioned earlier in one of the articles that it is not realistic to expect clubs to play a rugby 15 match for the simple reason that there are not enough players to complete such a competition. However, a game could have been held, for example the Cup of Regions, north against south, which could have been a good preparation before the match with Croatia. Our opinion is that it would be ideal if the U18 juniors had 7 or 8 activities including matches and tournaments during the half season. But for those games to be within their age group, and not to count playing activities for seniors. If they had so many matches, our juniors would play at a very high level, where they would be equal to much bigger rugby countries in terms of activity.
In many ways, the current junior generation is extremely important for Serbian rugby. Apart from the record quality they possess, they started to be talked about, i.e. rugby became a more popular topic of conversation. Why are we talking about this? Well, simply, everyone’s goal is for rugby to be popular, and for it to be popular, it has to be talked about. Which means that you can’t expect your sport to be popular where no one even knows when the tournament is taking place, where you don’t have any photo or video material from it, where no one writes about the tournament, where you don’t have information about the results and standings. If you still hold one or two tournaments during the half-season, and if your children still come to training, you can consider yourself lucky.
If you want to make rugby popular, it must first of all be interesting, high-quality, with clear rules that apply equally to everyone. Then more talk about rugby will start, people will start coming to matches and tournaments. Everyone wants to be part of a popular activity, to enjoy the positive energy and healthy environment. It is by no means easy to create, even more difficult to maintain. It is easy to slip into irrational thinking where you think that the solution to the problem is if you remove that problem or you think that everyone is against you, where you are the only victim, i.e. the so-called Calimero syndrome. Let’s take the example of the most popular sport in our country, where hardly more than 300-400 people go to the soccer matches of our Super League, except when Zvezda and Partizan play, where there are slightly more spectators. All popularity is for naught when people are not interested in being part of an environment where the rules do not apply equally to everyone and where there is nothing but positive energy.
The list is our opinion regarding which players could provide the most in the respective position. We had the opportunity to observe the juniors at most of the competitions, so we are absolutely sure of our choice. Please note that players who were born in 2004 and 2005. were considered . We took into account the players who play in Serbia.
U18 team of the season:
15. Marko Košpić
Position: Fullback
YOB: 2004.
Club: RK Dinamo 1954
14. Aleksa Jovanović
Position: wing
YOB: 2004.
Club RK Kruševac
13. Dragan Kokanović
Position: Center
YOB: 2005.
Club: BRK Crvena Zvezda
12. Matija Pelva
Position: Center
YOB: 2005.
Club: RK Rad
11. Nemanja Lazić
Position: wing
YOB: 2004.
Club RK Kruševac
10. Momcilo Kralj
Position: Flyhalf
YOB: 2004.
Club: BRK Crvena Zvezda
9. Milan Kuzmanović
Position: Scrumhalf
YOB: 2004.
Club: RK Dinamo 1954
8. Danijel Stojanovic
Position: Number 8
YOB: 2004.
Club: RK Rad
7. Igor Švraka
Position: Flanker
YOB: 2005.
Club: RK Rad
6. Vukašin Vasić
Position: Flanker
YOB: 2004.
Club: RK Dinamo 1954
5. Noah Grtuetzmaher
Position: Lock
YOB: 2005.
Club: RK Rad
4. Veljko Mitić
Position: Lock
YOB: 2004.
Club RK Kruševac
3. Dušan Jovanović
Position: Prop
YOB: 2005.
Club: RK Rad
2. Vuk Krivokuća
Position: Hooker
YOB: 2004.
Club: RK Dinamo 1954
1. Boris Milojković
Position: Prop
YOB: 2004.
Club: RK Rad
