I’m delighted to be helping Ukraine prepare for big match
WHILE Ireland and Georgia have recently been crowned champions of their respective European tournaments, the fight to see who wins the men’s Europe Rugby Trophy Competition – the third tier of European Competition – continues.
Perhaps the most fascinating team taking part is Ukraine, a country that has been at war with Russia since February 2022. Despite this the national team which is made up entirely of Ukrainians, 90 per cent of whom are based currently in Ukraine, are committed to playing all five of their matches against Croatia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Sweden and Switzerland. If getting a squad together is not difficult enough, all matches have to be played away from Ukraine.
In January a new coaching group was put together under Ukrainian-born former Russian international Oleksandr Prymachenko and former Georgia, Edinburgh and Toulon international No.8, now based in Kiev, Dimitri Basilaia. The Penguins International RFC has a well-established link with Ukraine Rugby and through this I was invited to assist the coaching team for their remaining three matches starting with Saturday’s clash against the Czech Republic followed by Sweden on April 6 and Switzerland on April 13.
Simply getting the squad to the training venue in the Czech Republic was a challenge as after a 13 hour coach journey they were held at customs for nearly six hours where they had to prove they were not trying to escape from the war. Game time for these players has also been extremely limited of late, but I have been really impressed with what I have seen on the training field this week. Considering the situation in Ukraine the skill and rugby conditioning levels of the players are really good. The Ukrainians are strong, physical players who all share a love for contact sport. A couple of these players would definitely be able to be full time at Championship level, with the rest well capable of playing at National One/ Two. Four of the younger squad players are actually full time players in France and Poland. The challenge for the new coaching group is to move the team’s playing style on from a very traditional forward orientated one to one that can involve more fully the exciting backs they have within the team. They have good pace on the wings and in fly half Vladyslav Adazhynyk a play maker dangerous with ball in hand and when kicking. The team is led by the uncompromising No8 Vitalii Orlov for ten years previously a full time professional with top Moscow club Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk.
Another current challenge is resources so it was great to be able to bring across a good amount of balls and training bibs supplied by Rhino Rugby. Breakfast this morning probably highlighted the huge difference for this squad compared to others as the discussion was about the 13 rockets that had been launched and hit Kiev during the night where most of their families are based. These players take great pride in representing their country, probably even more so at present, and I am excited to see how well they can domin the upcoming matches.