Ukraine national rugby union team explained

Ukraine
Nickname:Kozaky (The Cossacks)
Badge:Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine.svg
Badge Size:130px
Emblem:Trident
Union:National Rugby Federation of Ukraine
Confederation:Rugby Europe
Coach:Valerii Kochanov
Captain:TBC
Home Stadium:Various
World Rugby Trigramme:UKR
Leftarm1:0072C9
Body1:0072C9
Rightarm1:0072C9
Shorts1:0072C9
Socks1:F2F200
Leftarm2:F2F200
Body2:F2F200
Rightarm2:F2F200
Shorts2:F2F200
Socks2:F2F200
World Rugby Rank:36
World Rugby Rank Date:16 January 2023
World Rugby Max:24
World Rugby Max Year:2004
World Rugby Min:42
World Rugby Min Year:2018
First Game: Georgia 19–15 Ukraine
(Tbilisi, Georgia 21 November 1991)
Largest Win: Austria 0–78 Ukraine
(Vienna, Austria 14 May 1994)
Largest Loss: Romania 97–0 Ukraine
(Bucharest, Romania 19 March 2005)
Website:www.rugby.org.ua

The Ukraine national rugby union team (Ukrainian: Збірна України з регбі) represents Ukraine in men's international rugby union competitions. Nicknamed The Cossacks (Козаки, Kozaky), is one of the tier 3 teams in Europe that currently compete in the second division of the Rugby Europe International Championships in the Rugby Europe Trophy, a competition which is just below the Rugby Europe Championship where the top 6 countries in Europe (apart from the teams in the Six Nations) compete. They are yet to participate in any Rugby World Cup.

History

See main article: Rugby union in Ukraine. Ukraine made their international debut in 1991 against Georgia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, losing the close game 15-19. The two nations played again three days later, where Georgia won again with the score of 6-0. The following year Ukraine met Georgia once more for a two match series, losing both matches. In their first match of 1993, they defeated Hungary 41-3 for their first ever win since their independence. This was followed by another three wins in succession, against Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. This streak would however end in 1994 with a loss to Denmark.

In 1996 Ukraine defeated Latvia 19-3; the match would be the start of a nine match winning streak) which would be the longest thus far. The wins carried on until 1998, where they lost to the Netherlands 13-35. The late 1990s, Ukraine saw mixed results and defeated teams like Poland and the Czech Republic, but they lost games to the likes of their neighbours Russia, Georgia and Romania.

Ukraine played in the first division of 2005-06 European Nations Cup, the tournament where the best teams in Europe outside of the Six Nations and the tournament that also served as a qualifier for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. Ukraine lost all ten of their fixtures and were relegated to Division 2A while within the qualifiers, the bottom three teams went on to Round 4 of the European World Cup qualifiers, so Ukraine would find their selves playing against Russia twice to determine who goes through to the next round of the qualifiers. Ukraine lost both games by the scores 11-25 and 37-17.

Record

World Cup

World Cup recordwidth=1% rowspan=25World Cup Qualification record
YearRound
1987Part of USSR: Not an independent countryPart of USSR: Not an independent country
1991Part of USSR: Not an independent countryPart of USSR: Not an independent country
1995did not enterdid not enter
1999did not qualify8602274108
2003430110054
2007120012105618
201111605177219
201510505227227
2019500552215
2023Automatically eliminated
Total0/800000050200309351441

European Competitions

width=75SeasonDivisionwidth=35width=35width=35width=35width=45width=45width=45width=45width=45
2000European Nations Cup Second Division410354 135 -81 6 3rd
2000-01European Nations Cup Second Division540165 61 +4 13 2nd
2002-04European Nations Cup Second Division Pool A8710200 74 +126 23 1st
2004-06European Nations Cup First Division10001077 556 -479 10 6th
2006-08European Nations Cup Second Division 2A8305117 128 -11 14 4th
2008-10European Nations Cup Second Division 2A8503140 109 +31 18 1st
2010-12European Nations Cup First Division 1A10109124 442 -318 5 6th
2012-14European Nations Cup First Division 1B10505227 227 0 24 3rd
2014-16European Nations Cup First Division 1B10802244 165 +79 36 2nd
2016-17Rugby Europe Trophy500552 215 -163 0 6th
2017-18Rugby Europe Conference 1 North421192 63 +29 12 2nd
2018-19Rugby Europe Conference 1 North4301113 29 +84 14 1st
2019-20Rugby Europe Trophy522160 74 -19 14 3rd
2021-22Rugby Europe Trophy5104108 177 -69 5 5th
2022-23Rugby Europe Trophy4202117 135 -18 9 2nd
2023-24Rugby Europe Trophy500561 225 -164 0 6th

Overall

Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Ukraine national XV at test level up until 13 April 2024:

width=200 Opponentwidth=70 Playedwidth=70 Wonwidth=70 Lostwidth=70 Drawnwidth=70 % Won
2 2 0 0 %
9 4 5 0 %
6 4 2 0 %
10 4 6 0 %
3 2 1 0 %
9 0 9 0 0%
9 3 5 1 %
3 2 0 1 %
1 1 0 0 %
3 2 1 0 %
7 4 3 0 %
1 1 0 0 %
11 4 7 0 %
9 6 3 0 %
14 11 3 0 %
5 1 4 0 %
7 0 7 0 0%
9 0 9 0 0%
2 0 2 0 0%
1 1 0 0 %
1 1 0 0 %
10 9 1 0 %
6 2 4 0 %
Total 138 64 72 2 %

Current Players

The following players were selected for the 2021–22 Rugby Europe Trophy match against Lithuania.[1]

Caps updated:

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the squad within the last 12 months.

PlayerPosDate of birth (age)CapsClubLatest call-up
Vitalii KramarenkoProp Budowlani Łódźv. Poland, 9 October 2021
Ruslan RadchukLock29 November 1986 (age 34) RC Kredo-63v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Daniil HaponScrum-half18 November 2001 (age 19) SC Sokilv. Poland, 9 October 2021
Oleh ZarovnyiFullback19 September 2002 (age 19) Odesa National Teamv. Poland, 9 October 2021
Dmytro Mokretsov24 March 1988 (33) Ogniwo Sopotv. Poland, 9 October 2021
Oleksandr Khomenko28 November 1990 (age 30) RC Podillyav. Poland, 9 October 2021
Eduard Vertyletskyi Pogoń Siedlcev. Poland, 9 October 2021
Roman KulakivskyiLock5 November 1986 (age 34) RC Kredo-63v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Yaroslav Davydov1 January 2001 (age 20) RC Olympv. Poland, 9 October 2021

Coaches

Current coaching staff

NameNationalityRole
Maksym KravchenkoManager
Valerii KochanovHead coach
Oleh KvasnytsiaCoach
Olena ZadorozhnaPhysio

Former coaches

Notable players

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Lithuania vs Ukraine match report. Rugby Europe. 23 October 2021. 25 October 2021.