Croatia national rugby union team
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| Croatia | ||||||||||||||||||
| Union | Hrvatski Ragbijaski Savez | |||||||||||||||||
| Coach |  Tihomir Janković |
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| Captain | Miroslav Mandić |
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| First international | ||||||||||||||||||
Croatia 35 - 3  Slovenia(1992-11-07) |
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| Largest win | ||||||||||||||||||
Croatia 78 - 3  Hungary(1993-05-22) |
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| Worst defeat | ||||||||||||||||||
Croatia 0 - 126  France XV(1993-06-19) |
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The Croatia national rugby union team are the national rugby union team of Croatia. They are governed by the Hrvatski Ragbijaski Savez. Croatia have been playing internationals rugby since 1992, they have yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup
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[edit] History
Croatian rugby started on the 17th of January 1954 when the Mladost team from Zagreb was formed to become Croatia's first Rugby Club. The Croatian Rugby Federation was formed in 1962 and
[edit] Local Teams
There are 20 men's teams and 1 women's team. Teams are located in the major cities.
Currently members of the Croatian Rugby Federation are the following teams (and cities in brackets)
- Pula (Pula)
- Dubrovnik (Dubrovnik)
- Kastelanska Rivijera (Kastel)
- Lokomotiva (Zagreb)
- Makarska Rivijera (Makarska)
- HARK (Hrvatski Akademski Ragbi Klub) Mladost (Zagreb)
- Nada (Split)
- Ploce (Ploce)
- Ragbi '59 (Split)
- Rijeka (Rijeka)
- Rudes (Zagreb)
- Sinj (Sinj)
- Sisak (Sisak)
- Zagreb (Zagreb)
- Zagreb Veteranski RK (Zagreb)
- Zrinski (Zagreb)
The woman's club is called Viktorija Zagreb.
[edit] Interliga Competition
This competition involves club teams from Croatia, Slovenia and previously Bosnia-Hercegovina.
In 2004/05, 9 teams participated (Croatia - Nada, Zagreb,Mladost, Makaska Rivijera and Sisak - Slovenia - Ljubljana, Bezigrad and Emona - Bosnia - Celik) with Ljubljana finishing first.
In 2005/06, 5 teams entered with Croatia's Zagreb winning the competition
In 2006/07, 6 teams entered and Nada became competition winners for the first time.
Also in season 2007/08, there has been a Regional Rugby 15 League set up with teams from Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Serbia.
[edit] Internationals
Croatia played their first international on November 28, 1992, away against Bosnia & Herzegovina, and won 47-3. Croatia played four the following year with wins over Austria and Hungary. They then faced off against Italy, who won 76-11. The year finshined off with a win over Morocco 36-12 but a loss to Spain .
The following year they won three of their five fixtures, though they lost to Ukraine and Luxembourg, though the following year, they were able to defeat Luxembourg in 1995. Croatia won a number of games in 1996-97, defeating the likes of Israel, Norway, Bulgaria, Latvia and Moldova and but losing to an experienced Georgia that year by 29-15.
1997 to 2000, Croatia played 11 International for 10 wins and 1 loss (to the Netherlands).
Croatia won five matches in a row from 2001 to 2002. Croatia started in round three of the 2007 Rugby World Cup European qualification tournament but were knocked out by Latvia and Andorra.
On the 10th of November,2007 Croatia defeated Malta 24-9 in Makarska. There are two internationals coming up in 2008 with Croatia taking on Andorra in Split (19th April) and away to Latvia in Riga (10th May)
As at the 10th of March, 2008, Croatia is ranked 44th in the official IRB Rankings.
[edit] Famous players
Croatia have a host of players who are New Zealanders, Australians and South Africans of Croatian origin who play the game and have played internationally for these countries.
Frano Botica was a one time Croatian rugby coach and former All Black, whose grandparents were born in Korčula. Another former All Black who turned out for the Croatian side at the same time was Matthew Cooper. Dan Luger is an England representative whose father Darko Luger is a leading Croatian Rugby official. Sean Fitzpatrick is another former All Black captain who has Croatian heritage.
[edit] Club Pages
[edit] External links
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