Croatia repeat win over Bulgarian rivals

Ela Avramovic breaks away to score the winning try

Last year’s test match between the same two teams was also a test debut for both, Since then Bulgaria have played two more test and, despite losing both, have clearly close the gap with the Croatians based on this performance.

They opened the scoring with an excellent try, scrumhalf Zhaklina Ivanova taking the ball from the back of a solid Bulgarian scrum down the blindside before starting a superb weaving cross-field run to set up win Miglena Vasileva to score in the corner after 16 minutes.

But it was a try that came from Bulgaria’s only venture into the Croatian half. The rest of the half was a constant Croatian assault on the Bulgarian end, with the home side defending valiantly until outside centre Lara Josipovic finally found a gap in the line five minutes before the break to tie the scores 5-5, which remained the score until halftime.

In traditional rugby style Croatia remained on the field for the break.

The second half continued the patten of the first with almost constant Croatian pressure. This began to make an impact as injuries on the Bulgarian side began to mount, along with yellow cards (there were five in the match, three against Bulgarian players) until finally in the 56^th minute a Croatian second try came from Ela Avramovic, finding space in the corner to dive over. 10-5 to Croatia.

But ten minutes later the silky footwork of Ivanova again set up a Bulgarian try, this time scored by Asya Donova, to tie the scores.

What followed was ten minutes of Bulgarian pressure on the Croatian line, all undoneby some quick thinking by Croatia’s fly-half Avramovic. With Bulgarian penalised for not releasing on the Croatian 22, Avramovic looked at the referee and took a quick tapped penalty as the Bulgarian players mentally switched off, and ran 70 metres to score under the posts. The only converted kick of the game put Croatia back in the lead 17-10, as it remained until the end.

Both teams have clearly developed hugely in a year, though they still largely betray their sevens background with kicking in particular a problem. Despite that in three or four they and the other Conference teams will be knocking on the door of the Trophy teams. There is a bright future ahead for European XVs rugby.

TEAMS*:

BULGARIA; 1 Anna Andreeva; 2 Valentina Veleva-Asenova; 4 Nikita Yordanova; 8 Zhivka Ivanova; 5 Grigoriya Naneva; 6 Magdalina Petkova; 7 Maya Tsankova; 3 Veronika Tasleva; 19 Zhaklina Ivanova; 10 Maria Buchkova; 11 Teodora Videva; 12 Asya Donova; 13 Viktoria Koleva; 14 Miglena Vasileva; 15 Kristiana Marinkova;

Bulgaria substitutions; 26 Vladislava Yordanova; 20 Anna-Maria Evgenieva; 27 Vesela Vazharska; 17 Canka Ladzhova; 16 Viktoria Marinova; 9 Elena Pipisheva; 18 Maria-Magdalena Kotseva; 24 Ilona Mancheva-Eduardova;

CROATIA; 4 Dubravka Kovac; 1 Nikolina Diko; 3 Petra Kusen; 5 Viktorija Zugaj; 20 Katarina Radic; 21 Josipa Farac; 8 Josipa Grgic; 23 Christina Gill Radukic; 9 Lora Aladrovic; 10 Ela Avramovic; 13 Mirna Petricevic Milardovic; 11 Antonela Jurko; 15 Sara Relic; 12 Lara Josipovic; 7 Manuela Andrijanic;

Croatia substitutions; 18 Eva Vlasta Radukic; 2 Petra Druskovic; 16 Ivana Pernar; 17 Antonija Vodopija; 6 Karla Balic; 14 Josipa Ivanovic.

*Shirt numbers do not reflect positions but rather which borrowed shirts fitted each player best.