Croatia national rugby union team
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| Union | Croatian Rugby Union | |
|---|---|---|
| Coach(es) |
 Milan Yelavich/Anthony Posa | |
| Captain(s) |
 Tonci Buzov | |
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| First international | ||
Croatia 35 – 3 Slovenia  (1992-11-07) | ||
| Largest win | ||
Croatia 78 – 3 Hungary  (1993-05-22) | ||
| Largest defeat | ||
Croatia 6-126 France B  (1993-06-19) | ||
The Croatia national rugby union team are the national rugby union team of Croatia. They are governed by the Croatian Rugby Union. Croatia are currently ranked 49th in the official world rankings. Croatia have been playing internationals rugby since 1992, they have yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup.
Internationals
Croatia played their first international on 28 November 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 finished 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 St. Patrick's Day 2007 (17 March) in Knin the Croatian national team played an Irish Barbarians side and won the St. Pat's in Knin Cup.
On 10 November 2007 Croatia defeated Malta 24–9 in Makarska. There are two internationals coming up in 2008 with Croatia taking on Andorra in Split (19 April) and away to Latvia in Riga (10 May)
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. The first New Zealander of Croatian descent to play for Croatia was Brendon Winslow against Luxembourg in 1995.
Anthony Posa was another New Zealander who played many times for Croatia (1996-2003), playing out of both the GHA RFC, Glasgow, Scotland and Beverley RUFC, Yorkshire, England. He is now Head Coach of the Yorkshire Under 20 County side which has won numerous English National County Championships and coaches professionally at the Doncaster club in England. His family originated from the Island of Korčula.
Frano Botica was a one time Croatian rugby player and former All Black, whose grandparents were also 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 from the island of Brac. Sean Fitzpatrick is another former All Black captain who has Croatian heritage.
Current Squad
| Croatia national Rugby team | |
| Players | Coaching staff |
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Odabrani reprezentativci su: Filip Mijić (RK Lokomotiva), Toni Grle (RK Makarska rivijera), Denis Brečić, Ivan Šuta (HARK Mladost), Tomislav Burazin, Krešimir Čorić, Dario Jurčević, Luka Lerotić, Mislav Milanović (RK Nada), Marko Grčić (RK Sinj), Željko Galić, Tomislav Kadić, Ivan Zelić (RK Zagreb), Jai Ayoub (Australia), Leo Monterisi (Italija), Jason Newton (Južnoafrička Republika), Dušan Hakaraia, Mario Ozich (oba Novi Zeland), Tonći Buzov, Nik Jurišić, Ivan Miljak, Luka Perlain, Dylan Rowe (Velika Britanija). |
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See also
External links
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