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Ukraine national rugby union team

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National rugby union team
Ukraine
Shirt badge/Association crest
NicknameKozaky (The Cossacks)
EmblemTrident
UnionNational Rugby Federation of Ukraine
Head coachValerii Kochanov
CaptainTBC
Home stadiumVarious
First colours Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current36 (as of 16 January 2023)
Highest24 (2004)
Lowest42 (2018)
First international
 Georgia 19–15 Ukraine Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
(Tbilisi, Georgia; 21 November 1991)
Biggest win
 Ukraine 135–13 Slovakia 
(Piešťany, Slovakia; 9 November 2024)
Biggest defeat
 Romania 97–0 Ukraine 
(Bucharest, Romania; 19 March 2005)
Websitewww.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

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 record World Cup Qualification record
Year Round P W D L F A P W D L F A
AustraliaNew Zealand 1987 Part of USSR: Not an independent country Part of USSR: Not an independent country
United KingdomIrelandFrance 1991 Part of USSR: Not an independent country Part of USSR: Not an independent country
South Africa 1995 did not enter did not enter
Wales 1999 did not qualify 8 6 0 2 274 108
Australia 2003 4 3 0 1 100 54
France 2007 12 0 0 12 105 618
New Zealand 2011 11 6 0 5 177 219
England 2015 10 5 0 5 227 227
Japan 2019 5 0 0 5 52 215
France 2023 Automatically eliminated
Total 0/8 0 0 0 0 0 0 50 20 0 30 935 1441

European Competitions

Season Division G W D L PF PA +/− Pts Pos
2000 European Nations Cup Second Division 4 1 0 3 54 135 -81 6 3rd
2000-01 European Nations Cup Second Division 5 4 0 1 65 61 +4 13 2nd
2002-04 European Nations Cup Second Division Pool A 8 7 1 0 200 74 +126 23 1st
2004-06 European Nations Cup First Division 10 0 0 10 77 556 -479 10 6th
2006-08 European Nations Cup Second Division 2A 8 3 0 5 117 128 -11 14 4th
2008-10 European Nations Cup Second Division 2A 8 5 0 3 140 109 +31 18 1st
2010-12 European Nations Cup First Division 1A 10 1 0 9 124 442 -318 5 6th
2012-14 European Nations Cup First Division 1B 10 5 0 5 227 227 0 24 3rd
2014-16 European Nations Cup First Division 1B 10 8 0 2 244 165 +79 36 2nd
2016-17 Rugby Europe Trophy 5 0 0 5 52 215 -163 0 6th
2017-18 Rugby Europe Conference 1 North 4 2 1 1 92 63 +29 12 2nd
2018-19 Rugby Europe Conference 1 North 4 3 0 1 113 29 +84 14 1st
2019-20 Rugby Europe Trophy 5 2 2 1 60 74 -19 14 3rd
2021-22* Rugby Europe Trophy 5 1 0 4 108 177 -69 5 5th
2022-23 Rugby Europe Trophy 4 2 0 2 117 135 -18 9 2nd
2023-24 Rugby Europe Trophy 5 0 0 5 61 225 -164 0 6th

Overall

Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Ukraine national XV at test level up until 9 November 2024, updated after match with  Slovakia.

Opponent Played Won Lost Drawn % Won
 Austria 2 2 0 0 100%
 Belgium 9 4 5 0 44.44%
 Croatia 6 4 2 0 66.67%
 Czech Republic 10 4 6 0 40%
 Denmark 3 2 1 0 66.67%
 Georgia 9 0 9 0 0%
 Germany 9 3 5 1 33.33%
 Hungary 3 2 0 1 66.67%
 Israel 1 1 0 0 100%
 Latvia 3 2 1 0 66.67%
 Lithuania 7 4 3 0 57.14%
 Luxembourg 1 1 0 0 100%
 Moldova 11 4 7 0 36.36%
 Netherlands 9 6 3 0 66.67%
 Poland 14 11 3 0 78.57%
 Portugal 5 1 4 0 20%
 Romania 7 0 7 0 0%
 Russia 9 0 9 0 0%
 Spain 2 0 2 0 0%
 Serbia and Montenegro 1 1 0 0 100%
 Slovakia 1 1 0 0 100%
 Slovenia 1 1 0 0 100%
 Sweden 10 9 1 0 90%
  Switzerland 6 2 4 0 33.33%
Total 139 65 72 2 46.76%

Recent Matches

Matches
9 October 2021
12:50 EEST (UTC +3)
(1 LBP) Ukraine 24–27 Poland
Report
Yunist Stadion, Lviv
Attendance: 2,000
Referee: John Catteau (Belgium)
23 October 2021
14:00 EEST (UTC+03)
(1 LBP) Lithuania 37–39 Ukraine
Report
Regbio stadionas, Šiauliai
Attendance: 500
Referee: Ethan Glass (Switzerland)

Current Players

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

Caps updated:

Player Position Date of birth (age) Caps Club/province
Serhii Sukhikh Prop (1978-10-28) 28 October 1978 (age 46) Ukraine RC Olymp
Mykola Kirsanov Hooker (1980-04-24) 24 April 1980 (age 44) Ukraine RC Olymp
Oleksii Novikov Prop (1995-01-01) 1 January 1995 (age 29) Ukraine RC Olymp
Matvii Bocharov Lock (2000-01-01) 1 January 2000 (age 24) Ukraine RC Olymp
Oleksandr Lomakin Lock (1980-05-02) 2 May 1980 (age 44) Ukraine RC Olymp
Serhii Nikitin Back row (1990-03-18) 18 March 1990 (age 34) Ukraine RC Polytechnic
Vitaly Orlov Back row (1987-10-05) 5 October 1987 (age 37) Ukraine RC Olymp
Serhii Cherniachenko Back row (1990-01-17) 17 January 1990 (age 34) Ukraine RC Olymp
Vadym Sivak Scrum-half (1992-08-26) 26 August 1992 (age 32) Ukraine RC Podillya
Volodymyr Voitov Fly-half (1988-08-10) 10 August 1988 (age 36) Ukraine RC Olymp
Dmytro Prodeus Wing (1998-10-19) 19 October 1998 (age 26) Ukraine RC Polytechnic
Viacheslav Ponomarenko Centre (1982-09-27) 27 September 1982 (age 42) Ukraine RC Olymp
Oleh Kosariev Centre (1988-10-06) 6 October 1988 (age 36) Ukraine RC Olymp
Denys Primushenetskiy Wing (1998-10-22) 22 October 1998 (age 26) Ukraine RC Polytechnic
Myroslav Shuliak Fullback (1993-10-10) 10 October 1993 (age 31) Ukraine RC Podillya
Serhii Liutyi ?? (1998-11-28) 28 November 1998 (age 26) Ukraine RC Epokha-Polytechnic
Valentyn Porokhonchuk Hooker (1992-01-29) 29 January 1992 (age 32) Ukraine RC Kredo-63
Oleg Valius ?? (2000-11-28) 28 November 2000 (age 24) Ukraine RC Podillya
Daniil Korovin ?? (1990-08-06) 6 August 1990 (age 34) Ukraine RC Epokha-Polytechnic
Andrii Tsarevskyi ?? (1987-01-17) 17 January 1987 (age 37) Ukraine RC Olymp
Oleksandr Marshuba Scrum-half (1993-02-27) 27 February 1993 (age 31) Ukraine RC Olymp
Narek Manukyan Wing (1992-06-04) 4 June 1992 (age 32) Ukraine RC Rebels
Denys Zakhlivnyi ?? (1992-05-29) 29 May 1992 (age 32) Ukraine RC Epokha-Polytechnic

Recent call-ups

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

Player Pos Date of birth (age) Caps Club Latest call-up
Vitalii Kramarenko Prop Poland Budowlani Łódź v. Poland Poland, 9 October 2021
Ruslan Radchuk Lock 29 November 1986 (age 34) Ukraine RC Kredo-63 v. Poland Poland, 9 October 2021
Daniil Hapon Scrum-half 18 November 2001 (age 19) Ukraine SC Sokil v. Poland Poland, 9 October 2021
Oleh Zarovnyi Fullback 19 September 2002 (age 19) Ukraine Odesa National Team v. Poland Poland, 9 October 2021
Dmytro Mokretsov 24 March 1988 (33) Poland Ogniwo Sopot v. Poland Poland, 9 October 2021
Oleksandr Khomenko 28 November 1990 (age 30) Ukraine RC Podillya v. Poland Poland, 9 October 2021
Eduard Vertyletskyi Poland Pogoń Siedlce v. Poland Poland, 9 October 2021
Roman Kulakivskyi Lock 5 November 1986 (age 34) Ukraine RC Kredo-63 v. Poland Poland, 9 October 2021
Yaroslav Davydov 1 January 2001 (age 20) Ukraine RC Olymp v. Poland Poland, 9 October 2021

Coaches

Current coaching staff

Name Nationality Role
Maksym Kravchenko  UKR Manager
Valerii Kochanov  UKR Head coach
Oleh Kvasnytsia  UKR Coach
Olena Zadorozhna  UKR Physio

Former coaches

Name Years Tests Won Drew Lost Win percentage
Ukraine Valerii Kochanov

Notable players

See also

References

  1. "Lithuania vs Ukraine match report". Rugby Europe. 23 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.

External links

Rugby union in Ukraine
Governing bodyNational Rugby Federation of Ukraine
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