“Injuries prevented us from winning the Russian Cup.” Coach of RK “Bogatyri” about the performance in Sochi

Last weekend in Sochi took place PhosAgro – Russian Rugby-7 Cup among men’s teams. 11 Russian clubs competed in the competition, made up of players no older than 23 years old according to the regulations.

One of the favorites Krasnodar club “Bogatyri” finished the tournament in seventh place. The performance of the team was commented on by the head coach Anton Levchenko.

– We went for a completely different result. But a series of injuries haunted us from the group stage. We started confidently, won 2 matches against rivals from the Voronezh region and Rostov. They were important for reaching the quarter-finals. However, in them we lost three main players at once. Kirill Parkhomenko twisted his ankle, Semyon Smelik had a swelling on his ribs, and he could not run, and Stanislav Timoshenko pulled the back of his thigh. They did not compete again in the tournament. Those guys who replaced them have much less gaming experience, and some even had to act in new positions for themselves.

We completed the group stage with the Krasnoyarsk Enisey-STM, the future winner. We have already met with them before, including beating them. “Yenisei” has always been famous for its strong children’s school, all the guys there are trained, plus the selection is at a good level. Krasnoyarsk players mainly play classical discipline, not rugby-7, but everyone with good data is running, big. Their game was more destructive plan, our youth was not ready for this style. We were not weaker by the head, we just made a little more mistakes.

… The defeat in the quarterfinals from “Tagany horn” from the Rostov region with a score of 12:19 did not allow the “Bogatyrs” to fight for prizes.

– Of course, this is not the result we expected in the playoffs. I note that at once 5 pupils of the Kuban rugby played for the Rostov region. It can be said that they fought against their countrymen. This is generally a fairly new team, there is a Frenchman with Russian roots, guys from Krasnoyarsk and Dagestan. With all this, we had to win, almost the entire match was in the lead. Unfortunately, there was a fatal mistake, the opponents took advantage of it, intercepted the ball and literally turned the game around in 30 seconds. Of course, we lacked the main rugby players. Well, the opponent must be given credit. They had a tough tournament bracket, but they reached the final. In the semi-finals, they beat the previous winner, VVA-Podmoskovye. Our defeat in the quarter-finals crippled us a lot. When people go with the desire to win, after losing a key match in the playoffs, their hands drop. The boys lacked more emotions. In the semi-finals of the tournament for 5th-8th places, we lost one point to Lokomotiv from Penza. We were in the role of catching up, mainly due to a technical marriage, we made too many mistakes, which the opponent took advantage of. I repeat, it was hard to find emotions. Throughout the year, we prepared for these competitions, but we didn’t fight for the victory … Before the game for 7th place with Rostov, I asked the guys to finish the tournament on a good note: “We are a young team, it’s just being formed, it’s important to win, and then mistakes can be corrected. And we were able to win.

… The Bogatyrs have the second round of the Russian championship ahead, which will also be held in Sochi.

“We really hope that the injured guys will have time to recover. They are being tested. And so our composition remains the same as in the Cup. But if the guys cannot return, then the youth will have more practice,” said Anton Levchenko.