Croatia Rugby Test: Rugby Campaign 2014

In the first two weeks of November the Croatian National Rugby team played two tests in our division of European Nations Cup competition.

We returned home for the following week’s fixture against Israel, the newly promoted side to our group. In a bruising encounter the side dug deep and held off a physical Israeli team in an entertaining match broadcast live on HRT2 television. New Zealand based players Mario Ozich and Dusan Hakaraia both had major rolls to play in the match with Dusan scoring one of the teams 5 tries and Mario finishing the game heavily bandaged around his head after a collision in the first half. The team enjoyed playing in front of our home crowd at Stadion Stari plac in Split (home of Nada Rugby Club) and it was the first opportunity for us to show off our new BLK jerseys and playing gear, kindly sponsored by Peter and Tyler Rakich of BLK New Zealand. A final score line of 31 – 20 gave us 5 competition points to add to the 2 gained from the Malta game. This leaves us with 7 points from a maximum of 10 after two matches and has us sitting 2nd on the points table.In the first game against Malta in Malta, we played well in patches and scored 4 tries to 3 against. Unfortunately for us, the home team, who was supported by a vocal crowd managed to convert their kicking chances and held on to take the win 31 -26. By finishing within 7 point and scoring 4 tries we got 2 important competition points from the game.

The team is well aware of the support it receives from New Zealand as is very appreciative of this and honoured to be able to represent Croatians from all corners of the world.