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Rugby: For the Good of the Game

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From “touch” and “tag” and “sevens” and “nines”, all the way to the full 80-minute 13-a-side and 15-a-side versions, rugby football has come a long way in the past couple of centuries, but the basic principles – of running with ball in hand and not passing it forward, and not allowing someone with ball in hand to pass the ground you defend – are still shared by all codes of rugby football.

Rivalry in sport is not born out of agreement and harmony, but rather out of dispute and divergence. Evolution is a painful process; muscles must be ripped and torn for growth to occur, but at some point, they must reknit and rekindle, stronger than ever before. This is true for the development of clubs and movements within sports, but in the case of rugby, it is also true for the development of sport itself.

“They didn’t tell us about rugby league at school, but then we were middle class, lived in the south and played rugby union. So we never knew that, far off, in the cloth-capped North, men took money for playing a very different rugger…” ~ Roger Mills, The Game That Got Away, 1968

The divide within rugby is deep-rooted and ingrained in the social fabric of its heartlands. Stories are still told by old men to their grandsons about the “evils” of the rival code over the past century, the lack of honour among those involved in “that game”… Oh, how those promoting Association Football (aka soccer) must have rubbed their hands with glee when the divide in social classes ended up dividing their main rival sport.

Whatever the reasons, the bitter split of 1895 ultimately led to the emergence of two distinctive sports that, although similar and based on the aforementioned basic principles, are very different and appealing to different kinds of players and followers. League (13) is simple and strong, with an emphasis on collision in defence and evasion in the attack; it is a game of angles and numbers. Union (15), on the other hand, has numerous phases and facets and is tactical and complex – as demanding mentally as it is physically.

Despite the difference and disharmony between the two sports and their governing bodies, they have both managed to stand the test of time and grow beyond their heartlands – rugby union becoming arguably the most beloved sport in South Africa, for example, while rugby league is unquestionably the top sport in the Australian cities of Sydney and Brisbane.

The development of the rival codes has been no less eventful in Serbia, with the league being introduced first (1954), thanks to the efforts of pioneering Serbian sportsmen and French students, only to be banned across Yugoslavia and replaced by rugby union in the mid-60s, with clubs forced to either convert or close.

The formal professionalization of rugby union global in 1996 – essentially a century after league went “pro” – led to the lifting of numerous bans and blocks that had been put in place to stunt the growth of the “game from the North” and, by 2001, rugby league was back in Belgrade.

League has made great headway in the 14 years since it returned to Serbian soil, while the union has succeeded in maintaining several strong, traditional clubs that compete in the region, where a union is more developed than league – most notably in Romania.

League has made great headway in the 14 years since it returned to Serbian soil, while union has succeeded in maintaining several strong, traditional clubs that compete in the region, where union is more developed than league – most notably in Romania

Now the Red Star clubs that deal with these two very different sports – Red Star Rugby League Club and BRK Red Star Rugby Union – have come together to advance their respective games, essentially with a ground-sharing deal that will see them take advantage of the existing match-day facilities, pitch and clubhouse that have been traditionally used by BRK (the Belgrade Rugby Club) at Ada Ciganlija since the 1980s.

In this amazing, forested, lakeside setting that lends itself to sport and recreation, the two clubs will work to advance the profiles of their respective sports and entice people of all generations to try their hand at the oval ball sports… And, as BRK Red Star Rugby Union Club President Srđan Kragojević explains, they are also joined by another sport with a similarly odd-shaped ball.

“We have been working with the Belgrade Vukovi (Wolves) American Football Club, who also trains on the BRK pitch and are keen to attract investors. Their name sponsor is SBB. Together we want to lobby for this to become a centre of oval ball sports in the city. As three distinct sports working together, we have a greater chance of persuading the City to invest in the kind of infrastructure we need to bring this facility up to modern standards, perhaps even with an artificial surface and extended terraces for fans and better opportunities for filming games. Then we can allocate time for the League, the Union and the American Footballers to use the facilities and for everything to be scheduled,” says Kragojević.

Other than seeking to invest in the infrastructure at the rugby club beside the golf course, BRK Red Star Rugby Union plans to spend this year working on developing its “cadets” and “juniors”, which Srđan says is 80 per cent complete, by relying on the two schools that have traditionally served as the player base for the club: “the 13th Belgrade Gymnasium Secondary School in the Banovo Brdo neighbourhood, where most of our players went to school, and the Petar Drapšin Technical School, now the Aviation Academy, which I attended. We will continue our traditional method of classes at Kalemegdan and then bringing the new players here to Ada to join in with our training sessions.”

Red Star RLC Director Željko Delić is enthusiastic about the new partnership and believes it can help both clubs, and both sports, develop further.

“Our goal for this year is to try, in a joint effort with the union club, to attract investments in infrastructure on the pitch, in order for the ground to become more functional and eye-catching, and for it to become a hotspot for oval ball sports. Our ambition is also to start a rugby nursery that would include boys and girls from the ages of three to eight,” says Delić. “Independently of this, we will continue our work at primary and secondary schools in Belgrade, in order to get even more kids involved in our great sport. There is a long season ahead of us and we will focus on getting more media visibility regarding our activities, in order to further motivate our boys and girls.”

Together, the two clubs will begin organising informal sessions of “touch football/rugby” (FIT rules), one of the world’s fastest-growing and most inclusive team ball sports, open to mixed-gender teams of all ages, and one that has been sadly lacking in Belgrade since the old Kalemegdan touch Sundays came to an end.

As Kragojević explains, “we would like to organise regular open sessions in rugby touch on the weekends, on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Ada is really beautiful at that time of day and we would welcome diplomats and people from the corporate world, and maybe – as you suggest – organise smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for afterwards. We’re open to that kind of cooperation. We currently have Friday evening touch sessions at 8 pm and anyone willing to try it is welcome to attend.”

The two clubs will also work together on a new rugby nursery, as mentioned by director Delić, with many of the basic initial skills – spatial awareness, ball-handling, rugby motor skills, tackle technique – applicable to both codes. These nursery sessions will be open to passers-by, of which there will be plenty as the spring and summer crowds head to Ada.

The League club has broader ambitions of its own, including AirB&B package tours of the Belgrade league world for Australian backpackers and team tours to play friendly matches in France, Italy, Hungary and Greece, but this year club plans will be secondary to activities on the international front, as Serbia attempts to qualify for the 2017 RL World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and Red Star will provide at least half a dozen squad players.

As Delić explains, “We are conditioning our senior team ambitions to the interests of the national team this season, since Red Star is the club with the most players in the national team and this is the year of the World Cup qualifiers, so the objective is obvious. We expect the main selector, UK-based Australian coach Brian Smith will be watching the live streams of all our games, so the players should view every filmed club game as a national team trial. Hopefully, we will continue our partnership with Super League greats Hull Kingston Rovers and send two more talented boys to their Academy this summer. We are also looking to send some talented and experienced players to Australia, to gain experience ahead of the challenges that await us. We will need any help that we can get for these projects, and all people of goodwill are welcome to support our plans.”

Together, the two clubs will begin organising informal sessions of “touch football/rugby” (FIT rules), one of the world’s fastest-growing and most inclusive team ball sports, open to mixed gender teams of all ages, and one that has been sadly lacking in Belgrade since the old Kalemegdan touch Sundays came to an end

Regardless of possible investments and sponsorships, the Ada rugby pitch, match-day facilities and clubhouse already represent a gem at the heart of Belgrade’s beach resort area and a new hub for oval ball sports in the Serbian capital. Be sure to check it out next time you’re at Ada, and CorD will keep you posted as the plans and projects of both Red Star clubs’ develop.

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