Britain students win in Serbia

A superb second half show, which included a hat trick from winger Vinnie Finnigan, saw Great Britain Students defeat a Serbia Presidents XIII 48-8 in the Stadia Ada Ciganlida, Belgrade in front of over 500 fans.

The President’s men started well, stand off and skipper Dalibor Vukanovic opening the scoring with a penalty but the chief home playmaker was then forced from the fray after 20 minutes and the tourists took advantage, posting three long range tries to lead 18-2 at the break.

Niksa Unkovic reduced the deficit at the start of the second half but the Serbians lost their other half back Ivan Susnjara with a shoulder injury and the students went on to claim victory in style, claiming nine tries in all.

The match was used by the hosts, and in particular coach Marko Jankovic, as part of their preparations for this autumn’s European Cup when they will face Wales at home and Ireland away during October.

Following the game, the GB students visited Belgrade school Vladislav Ribnikar to run a coaching session to help promote and continue the spread the sport.

Meanwhile, domestically, the Serbian Second Division kicked off in style last Saturday when Belgrade side Morava triumphed 28-20 at Radnicki from Nova Pazova, in front of a similarly sized crowd.

Also taking part in the new competition are Kolubara from Lazarevac.

The same weekend, the Belgrade RL Federation organised an under 18s tournament featuring three sides; Red Star, Dorcol and Zmaj.

Red Star narrowly won both their games to take the title while Zmaj and Dorcol drew 8-8 in a thriller.