Croatia among European rugby 7s elite after sensational promotion
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
The Croatian team after securing promotion (Photo credit: Berislav Rožman)
The Croatian team has achieved the impossible and have been promoted to the elite rugby 7s competition in Europe.
Croatia will join the likes of European rugby powerhouses France, Ireland, Italy, and Great Britain next season in the elite Championship division after they finished second overall in the Trophy division which wrapped up in Budapest on the weekend.
“Quite unbelievably we have been promoted to the elite 7s competition in Europe. To put this in perspective, none of my players receive anything for playing for Croatia apart from pride and the honour, and now we are about to compete with the fully professional teams of France, Ireland and Great Britain to name a few. Each of my players sacrifice so much, whether it be missing work, holidays or family. One of my lads was selling corn on the beach 4 days ago and now he will be playing against full time professionals – it really is the stuff of dreams,” Croatia coach Anthony Poša tell us.
(Photo credit: Berislav Rožman)
Croatia, who finished second in the opening tournament in Zagreb in the two-tournament series, began their campaign in Budapest where they left off.
“We had a very good first tournament in Zagreb where we won our first five games and qualified for our first ever trophy final. That silver medal put us in pole position leading into the Budapest leg as the top two teams after both legs are rewarded with promotion,” Poša added.
Croatia secured three victories in the group stage in Budapest against Moldova 43-0, Luxembourg 24-14, and Switzerland 14-12, followed by another win against Switzerland 38-15 in the quarterfinals.
(Photo credit: Berislav Rožman)
(Photo credit: Berislav Rožman)
“Things didn’t go so smoothly in Budapest though, we lost one of our senior players, Marko Grčić at the 24th hour due to unmissable business commitments and then we had another player, Jan Vlašić, sidelined with suspected concussion. Despite this we went unbeaten on Day 1 and finished top of our pool. In the quarter finals we played some outstanding rugby to dispatch Switzerland, but in that game, Duje Plazibat unfortunately received a blow to his ribs that lead to him being rushed to hospital with what turned out to be a ruptured kidney. This unluckily was a ‘one in a million’ type injury that hit our team hard as Duje is very popular within our group,” Poša said, before adding.
(Photo credit: Berislav Rožman)
“Now with three players missing we fell short in our semi final against Latvia, and that put us into a play off for third against Sweden, who ironically were our closest competitors for overall 2nd place and that elusive promotion spot. Outnumbered we fought for everything (Sweden had to win by more than 30 to overtake us) and we lost only 12-10 – we were promoted!! It is the happiest I have ever been at a loss ha ha! We found out also later that night that Duje’s operation went as well as could be expected and he cried tears of joy when he heard that we had been promoted,” the delighted Croatian coach said.
(Photo credit: Berislav Rožman)
(Photo credit: Berislav Rožman)
Poša says that it is still a surreal thought that ‘little’ Croatia will be competing against Europe’s rugby elite next season.
“As we said, they could make a movie on this team, but no one would believe it,” he concluded.
(Photo credit: Berislav Rožman)
Croatian 7s team invloived in the historic promotion: Jan Vlašić, Marko Svaguša, Filip Perica, Nikola Pavlović, Ivo Perić, Nik Jurišić, Matej Buljanović, Luka Lerotić, Duje Plazibat, Niko Vranešević, Duje Čondić, and Luka Kovačić, Marko Grčić and Diminik Fišić.
(Photo credit: Berislav Rožman)
Overall standings after two tournaments: Ukraine 38 points, Croatia 32, Sweden 32, Latvia 30, Hungary 26, Switzerland 22, Poland 10, Luxembourg 10, Moldova 10, Israel 9, Denmark 7, Bulgaria 2.
