RC Slovan 24 – 40 RK Bratislava (Eng)| Rugby XV SK league

The Rugby Klub Bratislava has competed the match return against RC Slovan Bratislava in Cunovo, for a derby match.

We lost pretty heavily at home due to a bad organization on our side, and more experienced players in front.
This time, RC Slovan was fair enough to engage a real B-team, as they had to play the day after against Zagreb. Croatia.

The RKB squad [Zulf Armysky]
1/ Oriol 2/ Slavo 3/ Big Maxime
4/ Julius 5/ Pau;
8/ Jonathan

9/ Tom (captain) 10/ Charlie
12/ Jano (TT) 13 Miso (TT)
11/ Arthur 14/ Martin

Bench: Palo, little Maxime (TT), Evgenii, Richie, Giuseppe
Trainer: Zulfslav, and Richie

Teams	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Scored	Received	Points
Slovan	5	3	0	2	176	117	18
Zilina	4	2	0	2	122	99	10
RK Bratislava	4	2	0	2	107	127	10
Piestany	3	1	0	2	65	127	6

Resume:

RC Slovan B – RK Bratislava 24:40 (14:19)

Body Slovan: Sovadina 10, Chvála 5, Norcross 5, Sekuloski 4

Body RKB: Szekely 14, Clarke 10, Lienard 6, Ťažký 5, Washington 5

Highlights

Full match

The game

On the first half, both teams were ambitous, and for the RC Slovan a victory would mean they would grab the title that week-end, however our RKB boys didn’t agree and set better suspens in the SK league, more competitive than many foreigners thought who broke their teeth couple of time against good Slovak players, sometimes with even better technical skills.

As the two teams had not enough players in the Slovan camp, but not able to score with a try missed inside the try zone, when we’ve dropped the ball. Thanks to a strong defense, the Slovan squad hold the line and didn’t get so many tries as we wanted. Thanks to individual tackling mistakes, the RKB was able to score couple of tries, converted by our two kickers of the day Arthur and Jano. Leading 14:19, the RKB was, on my point of view, not rewarded by his effort, and taste of risky second half for not scoring during our “power play”.

On the second half, RKB was able to stable and se the gameplay, we good hand skills (finally) and clear vision open side. The scrum was uncontested, for not risking any silly injury. However, I should mention off side on the edge from the opposite scrum half, constantly on the fault on my perspective and not punished, penalizing our attack when we had very few balls on the first half. Gathering more balls and opportunity on the second half, we had lead properly the game from the 60′, against a very combative Slovan team.

Rugby spirit

Having for the first time in Slovak history derby fixtures, and myself as a former Slovan rugby player, I was wondering the content and the quality of the game. I was positively surprised from both side but the gentleman gameplay proposed during those two fixtures. In RKB, we have surely clean the big head/ego off the crew, cause we play for fun, to meet people sharing the same passion, and get an excuse to travel around. It was some tensions sometimes, but as every rugby game must show to contest the victory.

The RC Slovan Bratislava is leading 8 points ahead Zilina and RKB, and only in the case Piestany win over Slovan, and either Zilina or RKB would win their next two matches with bonus points, RC Slovan is slightly going to grab the Sloval Rubgby XV title, but we are pleased we have possibly post pone the celebrate and bring more challenges on the table.

Congratulations

In RKB, it’s absolutely a team work and rugby family spirit. It might happen I would forget some great names, but I appreciate particularly efforts of some active members.
First of all, Zulfslav and Richie are leading the men squad for a year, and the improvement we had during the match days are thanks to them mainly, as I am usually focused on the rugby school. They brought stability to the squad, a good vision and set a correct direction to the senior RKB squad. Comparing to France, those guys are simply great, cause I’ve never met such talented coaches, and good person on and off the pitch, making the rugby life very enjoyable every week.
Big up as well to our President, dealing with never ending story administration, registration, and cleaning jerseys and dishes at home with Janka. As well our first lady Olympia, cleaning our training yellow jerseys, very involved in recruitment and others, cheering the men squad.
Also everyone helping the RKB to grow, to advertise and trying to recruit the club, when usually people are used to say “yes, yes”, but not turning up to the trainings, because “too busy”.

In May, the Rugby Klub Bratislava will host two English teams in Tour, the Saturday 12th May and 19th May. Not facing the same situation with Bristol Rugby Club – students side when they cancelled at the last minute and didn’t help to cover the cost of booking a rugby pitch, this time the Rugby Klub Bratislava has reviewed with old boys from England to secure the test matches. Both teams book flight tickets for their whole squad, and hotel, so hardly they would cancel and we are looking forward to playing to a such level.

Recruitment

The RKB is welcoming anyone willing to try rugby, contact us for more informations.