On a very busy Saturday of men’s Rugby Europe Conference 2024/25 matches there were wins for Denmark, Türkiye, Moldova, Malta and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
There was also a win in the women’s Rugby Europe Conference 2024/25 for Latvia on the same day.
WOMEN’s CONFERENCE : LATVIA v NORWAY
Latvia and Norway Women’s teams played in an official Rugby Europe competition for the first time.
The event took place in a friendly atmosphere at the Ogre City Stadium.
They were 36-0 up at half-time with six tries and three conversions kicks scored by the host. The second part was more balanced with only two tries and final try coming late on in the second 40 minutes via hooker Patricija Paula Murniece converted by full-back Hanna Evelina Neilande to reach the half century mark.
POOL A : DENMARK v FINLAND
In the men’s event, at the Erritsø Rugby Club Denmark led 10-0 at half-time against Finland and then stepped things up a gear to win 42-0 with a bonus point to put them top of Pool A. The icing on the cake came with the final try through replacement Christian Philip Jorgensen with centre Simon Holm converting.
POOL C : TÜRKIYE v BULGARIA and SERBIA v MOLDOVA
After they lost to Moldova the week before, Turkiye got their first Pool C win of the campaign on the board with a 49-10 home bonus point triumph over Bulgaria in the Kızılcahamam İlçe Stadyumu.
The hosts took a healthy 20-3 lead into the half-time break and did not look back. Their last try of the match came from replacement Furkan Burak Zobooglu.
Moldova are above Turkiye in the Pool C standings with two bonus point wins from two after they went to the FC Železnik Stadium and defeated home side Serbia 31- 3.
Moldova only led 5-3 at the interval, but ‘won’ the second period 26-0 to take the points.
A crucial try for them which broke the back of this one for them came via stand-off Mihail Diacon in the 45th minute with full-back Sergiu Vicol converting.
POOL D : MALTA v CYPRUS
Malta-Cyprus was the first game to be played in Pool D tis season and it was a 64-point thriller.
In the end in the Tony Bezzina Stadium, the hosts Malta came out of it with a 43-21 triumph.
Malta got off to a great start and were 14-0 up inside the first 20 minutes, the second converted try coming after full-back Zarrin Galea ran a brilliant line to go over.
They then lead 24-0 at half-time and although Cyprus battled hard in the second period, Malta got the crucial result.
POOL E ; Bosnia & Herzegovina v Montenegro
Montenegro are top of Pool E with five points, but they suffered their first loss of the campaign in Bosnia & Herzegovina as the home side came through 30-20.
Bosnia & Herzegovina led 15-5 at the interval before Montenegro centre Dusan Vucicevic ran in a long range unconverted try just before the 50 minute mark to make it 15-10.
With less than 15 minutes to go the visiting team were actually 20-15 ahead before Bosnia & Herzegovina kicked a penalty via full-back Mahir Bisic and then scored a converted try from replacement Jusuf Maljisevic and a lineout drive try to seal the win.
You can watch the replay of all these games on rugbyeurope.TV
By Gary Heatly
