President Milanović Receives Croatian Rugby Federation Leadership
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović received today a delegation of the Croatian Rugby Federation, umbrella rugby organization in Croatia. At the meeting attended by the president of the Croatian Rugby Federation Dragutin Kamenski, general secretary Većeslav Holjevac, president of the Zagreb Rugby Federation Vladimir Gržanić, and captain of the national rugby team Nik Jurišić, there was talk of the situation and prospects of this sport in Croatia.
According to representatives of the Croatian Rugby Federation, there are approximately 1500 registered rugby players in Croatia, 22 rugby clubs including ten in Zagreb. Rugby’s popularity is growing in Croatia, and one of the Federation’s goals is to make it more appealing to youth. In order to encourage children to play rugby, the clubs started promoting it in schools.
The main problem and obstacle in the development of this sport is a lack of fields to play rugby. Most often they have to ask football clubs to use their fields, which results in a lack of understanding from competent institutions. Furthermore, they indicated a lack of interest on the part of the media and the public, even though the Croatian National Rugby Team plays in Pot 2 (2nd strongest group). In spite of this, they informed President Milanović that the Croatian Rugby Federation organized in parallel a men’s and women’s tournament during the European championship, which was just managed by France in the last ten years in Europe. In June of this year, they organized a second European championship at which rugby superpowers played – England, Ireland and Wales. Furthermore, each year a number of European Cup matches are organized in Zagreb and Split as well as the traditional friendly match between the Croatian National Team and the very strong University of Oxford team.
Alongside President Milanović at the meeting was the Commissioner of the President for Sports Željko Jovanović and the Special Adviser to the President for the Economy Velibor Mačkić.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek