European Championship B - Italy v Serbia

[brooza]

Qualification for the next RLWC continues on the 20th of June as Italy host Serbia in the European Championship B.

 

This is Italy's first international this year and will be hoping to defeat a Serbian team eager to build on their historic defeat of Russia last month

[Futtocks]

Qualification for the next RLWC continues on the 20th of June as Italy host Serbia in the European Championship B.

 

This is Italy's first international this year and will be hoping to defeat a Serbian team eager to build on their historic defeat of Russia last month

Which Italian lot are these?

[brooza]

Which Italian lot are these?

FIRL, this is the officially recognised team. No idea what sort of squad they'll use though

[Luxembourger]

Win for Serbia, 21-14 final score. Serbia looked the more organised throughout and after going 20-6 up early in the second half it seemed they were on course for a big win, but credit to Italy for a stirring fight back that got the crowd going.

Serbia's celebrations at the end including singing and a bit of dancing on the pitch - clearly delighted with the win!

[wackojacko]

Good stuff, really hope they make the World Cup and some great development gets rewarded. Met some of them at Cats game after their match against France A and they were very friendly guys.

[damp squib]

Fantastic they really deserve it!

[Anmhiabu]

Fair play..any crowd ?????..was Italian made up of home players only?????

[Luxembourger]

So the game was held in Gemona, which is a very small but picturesque town (population 10,000) about 20km north of Udine. The ground itself was the local athletics track, which had a very small stand (with no actual seats) with a marquee serving beer and food.

I reckon the crowd was about 100. There were no local dignitaries or "special guests" from the RFL or RLIF, but there was definitely someone there from the RLEF who seemed to be acting as forth offical/match commissioner etc.

I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of the crowd were very unfamiliar with RL. They got into it as the game went on, but I reckon it was the first RL game most of them had seen.

The game itself wasn't bad. Serbia were clearly very fit (none of them seemed to be carrying any excess weight, unlike some league one players...) and they had good shape in attack, with a nice deep attacking line. I think they only thing they really lacked was a bit of size and impact down the middle. Italy were the complete opposite - lots of big forwards with limited movement in attack - in truth they did look like an RU team. Italy had three "English"/"French" guys I think, and Serbia had one (all from championship/league one if I remember correctly).

Someone seemed to have a video camera so maybe some footage will appear soon...