Ukraine and Montenegro take the spoils as Conference kicks off

Ukraine and Montenegro got their respective men’s Rugby Europe Conference campaigns for 2026/27 off to great starts with wins at the weekend.

On Saturday, Ukraine defeated Türkiye 53-0 at ‘home’ in Moldova in Pool C while, in a closer affair, Montenegro got the better of Kosovo away from home 38-27 in Pool E.

At the Dinamo Stadium in Chișinău, Ukraine played some nice rugby and were 29-0 up at half-time.

After an early missed penalty attempt, Ukraine, playing in Moldova due to ongoing conflict in their own country, took the lead via an unconverted try from winger Yevhen Davydov.

The same man went over again and then back-rower Bohdan Kachurovskyi scored the third try which full-back Volodymyr Voitov converted to make it 17-0 after 24 minutes.

There was no more scoring until the 35^th minute, but two more tries before the break from centre Yaroslav Davydov and Heorhii Lvov, with one converted by Voitov, put Ukraine well in control.

Three minutes into the second period, try number six came for Ukraine.

This one was scored by No.8 Serhii Cherniachenko and when centre Oleh Kosariev scored in the 57^th minute with sub Danylo Diachenko converting it was 41-0.

In the final quarter there was still time for Ukraine to add tries eight and nine, Davydov bagging his third and fourth scores with one conversion from Diachenko finishing things off

Weekend Action

At the Demush Mavraj Stadium in Istog, Kosovo and Montenegro played out a cracker.

The home side got off to the best possible start when they scored a try after four minutes, back-rower Auron Syla scoring it and scrum-half Mehdi Krasniqi converting.

Montenegro levelled things up at 7-7 in the 11^th minute when winger Nikola Bubic’s try was converted by stand-off Srdan Popovic.

Back-row Marko Kosovic’s try put the visitors 12-7 up before a penalty from Krasniqi made it 12-10.

The back and fourth nature of the half continued and, in the 28^th minute, a try by Krasniqi saw the home team go 15-12 up before they had a player yellow carded.

The man advantage allowed Montenegro to score a try via hooker Stefan Vujovic to put them 17-15 ahead, but, with 14 men, centre Kushtrim Dragusha scored a try for Kosovo converted by Krasniqi and it was 22-17 to them at the break.

Back to 15 men, that then became 27-17 early in the second period when back-row Leo Hajdaraj scored a try.

Montenegro then had a man yellow carded and were really up against things, but with 14 men a try from centre Dusan Vucicevic which was converted by Popovic made it 27-24.

The visitors had their tails up and then Kosovo had a player yellow carded. Montengro were back to 15 at that stage, but could not take advantage and it remained 27-24 with just over 10 minutes to go.`

In that last section of the game, both teams had further players sin-binned and Montenegro managed to somehow keep their cool to score two converted tries and take the win.`

The scores came from Vucicevic and Popovic with the latter converting both to end a pulsating game.`

These games at the weekend just gone were the first two played in the entire competition and, this coming Saturday, there are three more matches.

There will be a Pool B clash between Slovenia and Austria at the weekend with Croatia and Serbia meeting in the same group. Austria just missed out on going up to the Trophy at the end of last term when they lost the access match to Malta.`

And Türkiye will get a quick opportunity to bounce back from their opening loss when they host Bulgaria in Pool C.

Men's Conference 2026/27