Great interest for the game
Maybe we are wrong or at least we were waiting for this meeting so much. U18s matches are always very interesting between Croatia and Serbia. During the last 15 years, there have been several very interesting duels. Almost every game was suspenseful and interesting. Sometimes the Croats had more success, sometimes we. Mainly what is interesting is that in the vast majority of cases they were interesting matches. It was the same now, the stands at Rudeš were packed, and a lot of people watched the live stream of the match.
Proposal for future friendly matches
This test match took place, so we can say, as part of the internship of the European Rugby Federation, which took place in Zagreb last spring. Then an agreement was made to play matches between Croatia, Bulgaria and Serbia. Our opinion is that it is a fantastic thing and that it is better than the previous U18 tournaments which were extremely strenuous and quite expensive. To play three games in a short space of time is a lot for this level of rugby played in these countries.
We have a proposal on how it can be perfected and gain importance with minimal investment and effort. We believe that every year junior national teams should play a minimum of 3 matches in the rugby 15 format. But it would be much better in terms of media and marketing if, instead of calling it a friendly or a test match, it would be played for a trophy, along the lines of the test matches between the southern and northern hemispheres or the 6 Nations Cup.
Let’s make the idea concrete. Instead of a friendly match between Croatia and Serbia, the Southern European Cup could have been played, for example. That Southern European Cup would be played every year, one year in Croatia, the next in Serbia. The winner would always receive a cup, the defeated team would receive a smaller participation trophy, both teams would receive medals or possibly badges, which would be a nice memory and souvenir from the game. With this, it would be interesting for the media, local governments and associations, and especially for the players, where it would be a great prestige to win the cup.
We can do a similar thing with Bulgaria, where they would also play a game every year that we could call the Balkan Trophy. We could do the same with Hungary, where we could call that match the Pannonian Cup. The point of the whole proposal is to raise test matches to a slightly higher level and to try to become more visible to marketers. However, the title, say, Serbia won the Southern European Cup, sounds better. Something like that would be very interesting for us, and we believe all rugby fans too.
Tough and interesting first half
In the first part of the match, an extremely combative and uncertain match was seen. We can say that Serbia had more ball possession and initiative, but there were not too many opportunities to score an try. From the very beginning, Croatia played faster, and developed more actions towards the line, where the tandem of centers stood out. But Serbia’s defense did not allow too many chances. What’s more, the center of the defense was an impenetrable rampart, so the Croats looked for more opportunities on the wings. The first part of the match was full of technical errors on both sides, which in the end gave importance to our scrum, which was dominant and took almost 50% of the ball in the opponent’s scrum. So we had much more possession of the ball and potential opportunities to score points. On one such occasion around 15th minute of the match, we managed to enter the opponent’s 22 meters, where we attacked unsuccessfully for several minutes. And then Boris Milojković received the ball from Momčilo Kralj right next to the ruck that was almost on the goal of Croatia, he saw the poor position of the opponent around the ruck, took advantage of the space and scored an try for a 5-0 lead. We had a conversion shot in a very good position, but we didn’t have a platform to shoot from, so the conversion attempt itself was unsuccessful.
After the accepted try, the Croats started with a more aggressive game. They tried to do something more with quick actions on the wings. There were no passes in the middle of the field because Uroš Pucar and Danijel Stojanović, who were phenomenal in defensive tasks, dominated there, among others. However, there was no passage either on the wing, partly because of technical fouls, partly because of Serbia’s good defense. The Eagles put a lot of pressure on the opponent’s outfield and scrum, which resulted in less lethal actions. The excellent referee Laura Wunsch played at the end of the half when the score was 5-0 for Serbia.
Serbia was more determined in the second part of the match
At the beginning of the second part, we started much more decisively and aggressively. And it gave results already in the 39th minute of the match. To avoid confusion, for the U18 juniors, the half-time lasts 35 minutes. After the play after our scrum, we get a penalty 5 meters from the tryline. The Croatian players were again not sufficiently disciplined and ready in defense. But Milojković was focused again. Momčilo Kralj took the ball out of the penalty area and passed it to the aforementioned Milojković, who scored a try for 10-0.
In the continuation of the match, we saw a mirrored situation from the first half. A big fight in the middle of the field, the defenses of both teams were up to the task. Our scrum and out won the ball, but we failed to take advantage of it because we played too slowly and with strength, with a large number of unforced errors. Instead of playing up-tempo and fast, we managed to limit ourselves with a slow game and let the opposing defense close us down. For a moment we thought we had returned to the period 40 years ago when the one who had more physical strength won, not the one who was better trained.
It was mostly played in Croatia’s half throughout the second half. Discipline was very questionable on both sides. At one point, Croatia had two players with yellow cards, so there was no pushing in the scrum. As if it was necessary for our team to consolidate a little more even after the scrum in the 65th minute, the ball is opened towards the line. Nemanja Lazić was in the opener at that moment, he faked a pass with the first center and passed a long pass to Ognjen Voštić, who passes the ball to Košpić, who makes contact and passes the offload again to Voštić, who had no difficulty scoring an try and increasing the lead at 15-0. The situation did not change until the end of the match, so the referee Wunsch blow for the end of the game.
Match information
Sity, State: Zagreb, Croatia
Venue: Rudeš playground
Date: 23.10.2022 .
Croatia – Serbia 0-15 (0-5)
Kickoff: 14:00h
Судија: Laura Wunsch (Austria)
Assistant referee: Relja Bulajić (Serbia)
Assistant referee Margarita Mratović Galić (Croatia)
Temperature: Claud, 19C
Replay: You can watch the video of the first and second half on the Facebook account of Aleksandar Nedeljković Čobi
Serbia squad:
Matija Mladenović, Dušan Jovanović, Boris Milojković 10, Lazar Aleksić, Uroš Jevđenijević, Vukašin Vasić, Uros Pucar, Danijel Stojanović, Momčilo Kralj, Strahinja Adžić, Aleksa Jovanović, Nemanja Lazić, Dragan Kokanović, Matija Pelva, Marko Košpić, Vuk Krivokuća, Vladimir Brošćanac, Nikola Pumpalović, Veljko Mitić, Vasilije Gerdić, Mihajlo Samardžić, Jovan Radovanović, Ognjen Voštić 5.
Captain: Danijel Stojanović
Head coach: Đorđe Gavrilović
Coach: Aleksandar Nedeljković
Coach: Vladimir Ambruš
Doctor Slobodan Mađanović
7 takeaways
Excellent statics of Serbia, dominance in the scrum
Excellent statics of Serbia, dominance in the scrum Both in the scrum and in the lineout. We won all our scrums, while almost 50% of the opposition’s scrums won the ball. We always pushed Croatia’s scrum, so even when they won the ball they were under pressure to move backwards. We must single out Dušan Jovanović, Vuk Krivokuća, Boris Milojković and Matija Mladenović who were very much up to the task. This is due to the coaching staff who prepared the scrum very well, even though we play rugby sevens in the competitions.
The out was safe, but we failed to make a big advantage out of it. The ball opened very slowly towards the line, so the Croatians did not have too much of a task to close the space. We haven’t seen too many maules from the car, where we think we would have an absolute advantage. We exerted excellent pressure on the opposing team. Uroš Pucar jumped very well and was a force in the air.
Good flow of the ball from Croatia and Serbia's granite defense
The attack of the Croats was very fluid, they opened the ball quickly. The centers were extremely mobile, fast and selfless. The ball was able to reach the wings very quickly and create a very good position for the attack. Everything that we failed to develop in the line and to attack at a high pace, the Croats succeeded. It’s just that they had an excellent defense against them and they didn’t manage to capitalize on a good game. The defense must be excellent when you concede 0 points, but the fact is that the Croatians did not have too many chances to score points. Simply, as we already mentioned, Pucar and Stojanović dominated the middle of the pitch and the rucks, where we managed to win a large number of balls.
Lack of discipline
A feature of both teams. Croats had three yellow cards, while we got two. But that was not the only feature of the entire match. By discipline, we mean that you retreat at the opponent’s penalty, that you position yourself and wait for the opponent to take the balls. Croatia received two cheap tries that way, due to poor positioning around cancer as well as before the execution of the sentence. We did not stick to the game plan, we often improvised, which can be seen in the large number of lost balls. We are aware that this is a junior category match and that we cannot expect maximum concentration. Discipline especially weakened towards the end of the match, when everyone’s concentration dropped.
Serbia's slow game
When we announced the match, we mentioned speed and high tempo as one of the characteristics of our game. We saw that as a model of our game that would bring us more space and a better way of playing. And we got the total opposite. We played very slowly, the ball was slowly opened to the line, and therefore we looked more like a butcher’s team than we played modern and energetic. The whole game was in contrast to what the teams showed at the tournaments of the Serbian Championship in Rugby 7, where the game was played quite fast.
Serbia's dominant third line scrum
An incredible game both in attack and defense. They especially stood out in defense where they were positioned in the center of the field where there was no passage. Uroš Pucar, Danijel Stojanović and Vukašin Vasić really showed their class throughout the match. In attack, they won space every time and it was very difficult to stop them. In the lineout, Stojanović threw the ball in, Pucar was a jumper. In open play, they were a high-level support. We think that we got players who will compete for the senior national team in the near future.
Bad kick selection
A festival of poor tactical kicks and decision-making involving kicking. It was equally bad catching the balls after those shots. We can’t decide who shot worse, although we think it was us. And we beat that in this category for a shade. We understand that you are in a hopeless situation and have to kick the ball, but that was not the case here. We managed to have two shots blocked in the same attack, where we had the crazy luck that the ball ended up in our hands both times.
Croatia's excellent centers
Unfortunately, we do not have information about the Croatia squad, so we cannot name the guys who played in the position of centers, as well as for which club they play. They did a huge job in the game and put out a huge pitch for Croatia. In defense they were exceptional, where they won the battle with our centers, but still managed to tackle our third line. They were not very lucky there, but they managed to close almost all the holes. Excellent shooters, excellent positioning and placement. They were very dangerous in attack, where they played at a high level and were quite fast. They left a very good impression on us.
