Annual Report Card: Poland, 2017-18

Annual Report Card: Poland, 2017-18

It's the end of the rugby season for Poland (mostly), so I'm going to write the first in a series of annual report cards for European T2 nations, that focus solely on the national teams in the year just gone.

Quick primer on Rugby Europe divisions, Grand Prix and Championship denote the highest level of competition, while Trophy is second highest, and Conference 1 third highest, and so on.

Senior Male XVs:

Highest level of competition: Rugby Europe Trophy, 5th (of 6) in 2017-18.

Results in past 12 months:

Czech Republic 19-14 Poland

Poland 13-0 Moldova (match sheet and facts only)

Netherlands 71-30 Poland

Switzerland 30-24 Poland

Poland 25-27 Portugal

The Polish national XV is a stalwart of RE's second tier competition, having recorded finishes of: 5th, 5th, 5th, 4th, 5th from 2013-14 to the 2017-2018 edition. Their two year average attendance is relatively strong at 3,650, but this is on a par with where it was three years ago. However those figures mask the fact that bar the mess against the Netherlands there was one win and three losses by an average of just 4.3 points. Had they scored an extra unconverted try against those three teams then they'd have been 2nd.

However coulda, woulda, shoulda doesn't win sh*t.

Grade: C+, stagnation with little glimmers of potential.

Senior Male 7s:

Highest level of competition: Rugby Europe 7s Grand Prix, 12th (of 12) in 2017.

Results in past 13 months:

12th of 12 in Moscow 7s (3-4th June 2017)

12th of 12 in Łódź 7s (10-11th June 2017)

11th of 12 in Clermont-Ferrand 7s (1-2nd July 2017)

12th of 12 in Exeter 7s (15-16th July 2017)

12th of 12 in Moscow 7s (19-20th May 2018)

To get the obvious out of the way, they're not good enough for the Grand Prix circuit, but because they're a host nation they cannot be relegated. However it should be said that Ireland, Wales, Italy, France and England also participate in the Grand Prix circuit, alongside Spain, Russia, and Portugal who have all been in the World Series within the past few years, so this is a very competitive level of 7s rugby. They finished 12th in 2017, 9th (of 10) in 2016, and they had not appeared at the Grand Prix level before that. It is another case of stagnation in Polish rugby, although credit where credit is due for managing to run an annual 7s tournament.

Grade: C-, slight decline, but can't decline any further.

Women's Rugby:

Highest level of competition: Rugby Europe (RE) Women's 7s Grand Prix, 8th (of 12) in 2017.

Results in past 13 months:

10th of 12 Malemort 7s (18-19th June 2017)

6th of 12 Kazan 7s (9-10th July 2017)

Polish rugby does not currently run a Women's XV team, but their 7s team is in the Women's Grand Prix. They came 8th on 13 points, four ahead of 9th, but only two behind 6th. Considering that five of the 6 Nations took part (Scotland was in the Trophy, and got promoted in 2017) it puts Poland up there in the European elite, despite the fact that 2017 was their first appearance at the Grand Prix level. If they maintain this level over the next two years they stand a very good chance of qualifying for the global Olympic repechage tournament for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, which European sides dominated in 2016.

Grade: B+, they've adjusted well to the elite level, with Olympic qualification not looking completely beyond them.

Youth Rugby:

Competition: RE U20 Men's XVs Championship, 7th (of 7 national teams)

Poland lost both their opening matches (71-5 v Russia, 52-15 v Ukraine), before narrowly winning against Portugal Centro-Norte, a scratch side that replaced the Germany team who pulled out. That means that they avoided relegation, having been promoted last year, but relegated from the Championship in 2015, which makes them a yo-yo team.

Competition: RE U18 Men's XVs Trophy, 2nd (of 8)

Poland is a bit all over the place when it comes to U18 men's rugby, in the recent past they've finished anywhere from 5th (2013) to 11th (2011 & 2012) amongst European T2 nations. However since that 2013 peak there's been a steady decline (6th, 8th, 8th, 10th, 9th), which has culminated in them losing their place in the Championship division.

Competition: RE U18 Men's 7s Championship, 9th (of 16)

9th is a decent improvement on the 13th that occurred last year, but I'm afraid that I'm struggling to give more context, due to the fact the Rugby Europe nuked their website of all past results after the 2015 season, and trying to find and restore them is quite a lengthy process, that I've only managed to do for the XVs age-grades.

Competition: RE U18 Women's 7s, 13th (of 16)

It's important to note that Wales, Scotland, and England competed as Great Britain here, for if they had competed separately then Poland would have been in the relegation slot. In 2017 they finished 6th in the Trophy division, which equates to 15th in 2018, so a slight improvement in the short term, but once again I'm unable to give context due to RE.

Grade: B, slight improvements in 7s alongside a small improvement in U18 Men XV means that this year's age grade has improved significantly on last year

Overall grade for the year: B. There seems to have been improvement in almost every aspect for Poland this year on last year. However it's impossible to tell if this was just due to a reversion to the norm, or a sign of a good batch of young players. Progress needs to be continued through future years.

Corruption and chaos: A new chapter in Kenyan rugby looks an awful lot like the old one

At the turn of the year Kenyan rugby was riding relatively high, in what looked to be a new chapter for Kenyan rugby. It had a blockbuster 120m Kenyan shilling sponsorship deal with betting firm Sportpesa (~£900,000, £1 = 133KES, but a tad over £2m when purchasing power parity is factored in), the Simbas (their XV senior side) had finished second in the African Gold Cup from two years running in 2016 & 2017, their best placings since 2013, leaving them in line for a Repechage spot in the 2018 edition, should they repeat their performances. In addition their 7s side was well on their way to achieve a strong 8th, and their record point haul in the world series (104, 19 points off 4th, 28 from 9th).

Since then however things have gone extremely pear shaped.

The first sign of trouble was on 2nd of January when Sportpesa announced that they were withdrawing all 600m of domestic sports sponsorship over the Government proposing to increase the rate of tax on the gross profits of gambling firms from 7.5% to 35%. Sportpesa was the main sponsor of both the Kenyan Rugby Union (KRU) and some local teams (such as the formerly Sportpesa Harlequins). There was some hope that one side would blink and that Sportpesa would reinstate their sponsorships, but when Sportpesa re-entered the sports sponsorship world they announced that it was purely football, and that they would not return to rugby. Immediately the KRU had to scramble for funds, and secured a shirt sponsorship deal with Brand Kenya (an arm of the Government) in late May for a 20m KS (£150,000) one-year deal. Although much less than they needed to run full operations, it was enough to tide the KRU over. Everything could return to normal now, right?

Wrong. For any eagle-eyed viewers watching the Paris 7s leg of the World Series you would have seen the Kenyan team were wearing a shirt with red duck tape over the 'Make It Kenya' logo (see the slightly lighter red box on Collins Injera, above). It has emerged that this was due to the KRU not paying the players their allowances for previous tournaments. Brand Kenya were furious about this and axed their deal with the KRU with immediate effect, and made a statement that indicated that they would not fund KRU again. To further complicate things Innocent Simiyu, Kenyan 7s coach, stormed the tribunal between Brand Kenya and the KRU and took responsibility for covering the sponsor, for the KRU was arguing that the players did not deserve any of the payments due to them (despite the KRU already receiving the payments from Brand Kenya). Consequently he was fired with immediate effect, even though the 7s World Cup in San Francisco was only a month away. In solidarity with Simiyu all the players are currently boycotting training, and have refused to play under the newly appointed Head Coach William Webster. The players also released a statement that said that it was a completely collective decision, and that no one person orchestrated it, in an attempt to get Simiyu reinstated.

In addition, the Simbas have just scraped a lucky away win vs Morocco (see footnote) 24-28 in the Gold Cup, and based on that performance may not end up as Africa's representative in the repechage (notably they looked significantly too weak in the pack). The KRU has also threatened to pull it's 7s team out of the 7s World Cup, and from the African Gold Cup, should they not find some more funding.

All is not completely lost however, the Kenyan Parliament MP in charge of Sports, Culture, & Tourism has offered to step in and mediate the dispute, with a view to making sure that Kenya can field their most competitive side in the 7s RWC. Immediate concerns over withdrawal from the Gold Cup have been allayed with Tusker Breweries taking over as main shirt sponsor of the XV side, in a deal worth 53mKS (~£400,000). In addition the players seem to be moving to form a union and to remove some allegedly massively corrupt members of the KRU, who have allegedly embezzled most of the previous sponsorship deals, from rugby governance. Should they do that, it'll be yet another 'new chapter' in Kenyan rugby.

I'll make sure to keep Beyond The Cartel updated with new information as it emerges, for this is quite a rapidly developing situation. To get updates as soon as I have them follow @BTCBlurandski on twitter.

Footnote: It has also emerged that the Moroccan Rugby Union is in trouble, with their Government refusing to validate the MRU's audit due to unpaid payments. It's not the only Moroccan sport in that position, but either way is not good news. Between this and the Rugby Europe debacle sometimes T2&3 rugby makes you want to cry.

Weekend preview: Africa Gold Cup, Asia Rugby D1, Rwandan Genocide Memorial 7s, MLR Regular Season concludes

Africa Gold Cup

Recap: More than pride is at stake here, first place at the end of the round-robin passes go, collects 4 years of WR funding straight to Japan, while second place enters the repechage. Last week Namibia beat Uganda, while Morocco tied with Zimbabwe, hence the table looks like this:

This week: Tunisia kicks off their Gold Cup campaign this weekend in Namibia, while Morocco hosts Kenya. Both games are on Saturday (23/6), both games kickoff at 15:00 (UTC), there should be a stream, which I'll share on twitter (@BTCBlurandski). Namibia is a heavy favourite, while Kenya should win, but given Morocco's strong away performance last week it could be close. Even more so when you consider that the Simbas (Kenya) have names five uncapped players in the touring squad, two starting, and three on the bench.

Asia Rugby Championship Division 1

Division 1 is the second tier of rugby in Asia, with he Asia Rugby Championship consisting of Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, with a promotion/relegation challenge against the winner of D1 (bar this year, where Japan was replaced by Malaysia for the purposes of Rugby World Cup 2019 Qualifying. This year Division 1 consists of just the Philippines and Singapore, due to Malaysia moving up, and Sri Lanka dropping out, so they're playing a two-legged playoff on the 23/06 and the 26/06 (both matches kick off at 15:00 UTC). Singapore are newly promoted to Division 1, having yo-yo'd back from been relegated in 2016. The last two matches between the sides were in 2015 and 2016. Singapore lost the former 20-17, and won the latter 28-24. It looks like it could potentially be another close series this time. 

Rwandan Genocide Memorial Sevens

This is the 6th edition of the Memorial Sevens, and it is taking place in the 30,000 seater Amahoro National Stadium, which functioned as a UN protected site in the genocide. It takes place on Saturday, and 12 teams are participating, and increase of four from last year. There are 10 local teams and two guest teams (Mbarara University, Uganda and Okapi Goma, DR Congo). Last year's champions Thousand Hills are returning, and so are the losing finalists Mbarara University. Last year the event was preceded by a 'walk to remember' from the convention centre to the stadium.

June Internationals

Georgia plays Japan in Toyota, the stadium where they'll take Wales next year. They lost to 2019 pool rivals Fiji 37-15 last week (having kept it close up until half time). Given that Fiji v Georgia will very likely be the automatic qualification decider for 2023 next year (third place in the pool gets automatic RWC qualification), Georgia should be looking to make a statement this week. While you may be expecting a brutal Georgian pack grinding out a win against Japan you'd be mistaken. The Georgian pack, which is traditionally one of the best in the world looked pretty weak against Fiji, and there's been some doubt raised over the capability of their forwards coach. Meanwhile the Georgian U20s have been producing some wonderful backs over the past few years (as seen at the U20 Championship in France), and while up until the past few years Georgia has struggled to get any backs into a full-time environment, now quality Georgian backs (Tamaz Mchedlidze, 25, Agen; Vasil Lobzhanidze, 21, Brive (already with 34 NT Caps!); Merab Sharikadze, 25, Aurillac) are being scouted by the Top 14, while the rest of the players play in the professional Didi 10 in Georgia (and potentially soon Kontinental Rugby). As a result Georgian back play can be a thing of beauty. Given the level of skills in the Japanese team this match has the potential to be one of the most entertaining matches of the international break, it's my personal match of the week. Georgia has won one out of five matches versus Japan, with an average net point differential of 5.2 points. When a stream is available I'll post it on my twitter. Kicks off at 13:45 (UTC) on Saturday.

Fiji v Tonga is the final islander match of the summer. Fiji are the definite favourites given that they beat Georgia, who narrowly beat Tonga, but any islander match is great fun to watch. The match should be streamed on World Rugby's website. The two teams have met 90 times, with Fiji winning 61 times to Tonga's 26 (3 draws)

Major League Rugby

It's the final regular season round of Major League Rugby this week, Utah take on Houston at home, while San Diego Legion host Glendale Raptors. The first tie-breaker is PD, however it's hard to see past Utah beating Houston, and no-one bar locked in number two seed Seattle has come close to them set far, and they've looked much the same team without their Eagles.

That's all that's happening this week across Tier 2 & 3, if there's anything I've missed, or you'd like me to write about, please contact me on twitter @BTCBlurandski.

6th edition of Rwanda Genocide National 7s to start on Saturday

This will be the 6th edition of the Memorial Sevens, and it is taking place in the 30,000 seater Amahoro National Stadium, which functioned as a UN protected site in the genocide. It takes place on Saturday, and 12 teams are participating, and increase of four from last year. There are 10 local teams and two guest teams (Mbarara University, Uganda and Okapi Goma, DR Congo). Last year's champions Thousand Hills are returning, and so are the losing finalists Mbarara University. Last year the event was preceded by a 'walk to remember' from the convention centre to the stadium.

Further Reading:

Press Release

TheNewTimes.rw

Rugby heals Rwanda after genocide

A profile and history of: Latvian Rugby

Fact File:

Name: Latvijas Regbija Federacija

Year Affiliated to IRB/WR: 1991

Highest end-of-year World Ranking: 37 (49.54, 2007)

Lowest EOY World Ranking: 72 (40.05, 2013)

Current World Ranking: 60 (42.83)

Current Rugby Europe International Championships Division: Conference North 1, 5th (relegated)

Home Attendances: 2016-17: 450, 500. 2017-18: 500, 450

Registered Players: 977 (2017) from 960 (2014)

Major Events Participated In: 1993 RWC 7s (6th of 6th in Pool, 0-5)

It would be fair to say that Latvia is not a hotbed of rugby, with only two professional players currently hailing from the country (Uldis Saulite (Enisei-STM), Lock, and Yuri Baranov (Enisei-STM, SH), and both of them being towards the back-end of their careers (37 and 36 respectively). Overall rugby seems to have stalled in the country, with only around 21 XV sides being fielded in 2017. However their youth structures seem to be improving marginally (17th-19th in U18 XVs from 2008 to 2014, but 14th-16th in the past four years, see below), while finishing 15th and 17th over the past two years at senior level in Europe. They also run a team in the Rugby Europe 7s Trophy, consisting of teams from 13th to 24th best 7s teams in Europe.

In terms of rugby's history in Latvia, it closely follows other USSR nations, bar Georgia and Russia, in that it had a very minimal presence, up until 1949 when it was banned in the fight against cosmopolitanism (I have as of yet seen no evidence that the dastardly Rugby League was not behind it n.b.). About a decade later rugby returned to the USSR as a whole, with Latvia's organising body being founded in 1963 (interestingly a year before Georgia's). Growth was slow until the USSR fell, which this directly lead to Latvia's national 7s team qualifying to the 1993 RWC 7s. For in 1993 20 teams were invited (4 had to qualify), one of these was the USSR, but then politics happen, and the USSR fielding a team was no longer feasible, the IRB consequently set up a qualifying tournament, where Latvia beat Ukraine, Kazakhstan in pre-qualifying and Georgia & Russia in the finals to claim the USSR's spot. Latvia were massive underdogs, given that there were only two rugby fields in the new country at the time. Unfortunately their underdog story was not to be repeated at the 7s RWC, where they came last in their group, conceding 168 points and only scoring 29, interestingly their two professional players were 11 & 12 when this tournament happened.

Since then Latvian rugby has grown slowly, but steadily. However this progress has been overshadowed by other nearby nations progressing at a faster rate, for example in 2014 they had the 30th most players in Europe, but by 2017 they had slipped to 31st, with two other nations less than one XV worth of players away from catching them.

Their national team is a mixture of players living in Latvia and in England. Their squad versus Sweden on the 10th of May this year consisted of 11 players from RFC Livonia, 6 players from RK Eži (a club founded in 1995, which was initially a youth rugby club that grew a senior section), and three players from North Ribblesdale RUFC (7th tier). Their player playing at the highest level was their prop Endrjū Marks Šteinbergs, who plays for Blaydon RFC, who were 4th tier when that game played (relegated at the end of the season).

Their national championship currently seems to be largely based in Riga, with 6 of the 8 teams sharing 3 stadiums in Riga. See the distribution for the 2017 season below.

n.b.: Interestingly Rugby League was seen in the USSR as a bourgeois sport, in a reversal of their traditional roles due to how League had spread through business, internet legend seems to indicate that as a result when the USSR collapsed Rugby League actually launched a takeover bid of Rugby Union (offering player payments, among other things), but failed, although several clubs such as RC Lokomotiv switched over to League. RC Lokomotiv then went on to dominate League in Russia, winning 7 of 8 national league titles between 2000 and 2007, and 7 of 8 national cup titles in the same period. Then however in 2008, following the IOC making 7s an olympic sport they went (largely) back to Union, alongside the other two leading clubs in Russian Rugby League (Kazan Arrows and Dinamo Moscow). This caused a crisis in RRL, and RL lost official recognition of the Russian Government, which lead to multiple rebel bodies being set up /tangent.

Thanks for reading, if you have any suggestions for countries I should do next, or anything in general, just leave a comment below, or tweet me @BTCBlurandski.

Further Reading:

The untold story of the Siberian Bear: why Latvia’s rugby hero is an inspiration

Latvia's national association website in English

Has Olympic 7s claimed it's first league victim?

Weekly wrap-up, week ending: 18/06/18

Hi all, I hope that this will function as a quick round-up for all of the slightly less covered rugby events of the week, of which there has been an awful lot.

Germany beats Portugal to win a two-legged tie vs Samoa

After the Rugby Europe eligibility debacle Russia was declared Europe 1, and Germany was to play the Rugby Europe Trophy winner (Portugal) for the privilege of being Europe 2. In what can only be described as a pretty dire match Germany won 16-13 (full match here). Truth be told the difference was probably made by Germany having their Wild Rugby Academy players back, while Portugal was in disarray due to not having many foreign players available and two of their leading clubs relegated to the third tier due to a mass brawl, which lead to the players from that club going on strike. I would recommend putting this a few videos below watching paint dry on your youtube playlist.


African Qualification for the Rugby World Cup kicks off

This weekend saw the beginning of the Africa Gold Cup (the Three Quarters podcast did an excellent preview). This year it consists of Namibia (24 in WR rankings), Kenya (28), Uganda (37), Tunisia (42), Zimbabwe (44), and newly promoted Morocco (38). With regards to RWC qualification, first place gains an automatic berth in Pool B against New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, and the Repechage winner. Second place wins a berth in the round-robin repechage in the autumn.

The first game of the round were Namibia hosting Uganda, which was a comprehensive victory for Namibia 55-6. Nothing overly special went on in the match, but a replay of both games is available here, should you want to see it. The second game was a 23-23 draw as Zimbabwe hosted Morocco, it was fairly entertaining, but should either side get through to the Repechage you can't imagine that they'd trouble Canada (although give the next item...)

Namibia is in the driving seat with five table points. Zimbabwe and Morocco possess two points apiece.

Canada Crush(ed)

I'm really not sure what to say here. The formerly premier T2 nation just got utterly humiliated at home by Russia, in front of 6,000 paying victims. The final score was 20-43, and Canada were utterly outplayed in every aspect, even when the Russians were down men in the bin. Full replay here. While Canada had a few full-time pros 'injured' (people have cast doubt on the authenticity of their absences), but considering that this summer series was meant to be a warmup for Canada's repechage challenge in the autumn, it has not gone well, Personally I reckon that if it consists of Germany (29th in the world), Canada (22), Kenya (28), and Hong Kong (21) then it could be a really close-run affair.

With every cloud comes a silver lining

The silver lining the the embarrassment of a summer series came in the form of Canada U20s completing an aggregate win over the USA U20s 82-62 over the two tests. This will be the third time in five years that Canada participates in the U20 Trophy (due to be hosted in Romania this year with Samoa, Romania, Canada, Uruguay, Portugal, Fiji, Namibia, and Hong Kong playing). The bad news however is that over time their performance in the competition has got worse, with their 6-10 year average position (15.8) being 1.4 places better than their 1-5 year average (17.2).

Canada has really struggled to convert top 20 finishes at youth level into senior performance, fingers crossed that Vancouver and Ontario MLR franchises come to fruition.

Czech Republic v NZ

In the latest of several high profile matches in Czechia (the last being Czech Republic v the Barbarians last November), the Czech Republic national team and U20 team played a New Zealand Ambassadors XV (assembled of New Zealand players based in Europe) in the now annual match. The U20 team got slaughtered 108-0 (at least Canada didn't have the worst loss of the week), but the senior team won 23-15. The crowd was reportedly in the region of 6,000. This is the fourth consecutive year that the event has been held, and the crowd is growing year on year.

Brief news:

Rugby Americas North Championship: Trinidad & Tobago beat the USA South 34-33, after USAS(?) led 27-12 at half time. There was some doubt whether T&T would have the funding to participate, but it looks like the money will be released imminently. [Correction 20/6/18: T&T has pulled out of the RAN Championship following funding not being released.]

MLR: NOLA edged Utah 43-46 to finish their season, but it was not enough to secure a playoff place. Glendale smashed Seattle 33-11 to confirm 1st seed, with Seattle 2nd seed. SD won perhaps the most important game, in front of 3000 fans, 31-17 against Austin to guarantee themselves 3rd or 4th seed. The regular season wraps up next week with Utah v Houston, and SD v Glendale.

Coverage not included: 

1. The USA beat it's first T1 nation in the form of a weakened Scotland in front of around 11,000 fans in Houston. The full match is available here (geoblocked to the UK), and 10 minute highlights are available here. Martin Pengelly did an excellent write-up of what this means in the Guardian.

2. The WR U20s Championship concluded with France beating England before a sellout of around 20,000. 7 minute highlights are here. From a Beyond The Cartel perspective Georgia achieved their best ever placing of 9th, and will return for a fourth consecutive appearance next year. Had they scored one more try versus South Africa they would have finished in the top four. A bright future lies ahead.

3. England lost again against the not-too-long-ago T2 nation South Africa. Why do I put myself through this? Answers on a postcard please.

This year's Pro14 table based off of last year's results

Firstly, in the interconference games last year both conferences would have won 114 points each, which indicates that on aggregate the conferences are equal, however in Conference B there are clearly two tiers: Leinster, Scarlets and Ulster at 66-57 points while Treviso, Edinburgh and Dragons all were at 26-22 points, in contrast in Conference A Muster were clearly top and Zebre clearly bottom with the middle four achieving fairly middling scores.

As for who the winners are from this new system, if it works out for Treviso like it would have last season a 4th place finish (realistically the Kings will not be challenging this year) would put a lot of critics to bed, however on a points per game gained in the new system Edinburgh are the big winners at 0.34 points more in the conference system, which is a whopping 7.48 points over the course of a season. Munster, Leinster and Zebre all lose between 2.86 and 4.4 points per season. Points which either in terms of jostling for playoff seedings or to avoid being cast adrift cannot really be lost for those teams. However ultimately there are so many variables in rugby it could work out that this year Edinburgh for example would be big losers under the new system, however this wasn't a completely pointless excercise because at the end of the day we all got a colour coded spreadsheet out of it.