ENC Division 3 - Hosts Montenegro triumph in their first International 15 a side match

11/04/2015 - 14/04/2015

It was a momentous day for Montenegrin Rugby as Rugby Europe’s newest Member Union beat Estonia 29-27 in a thrilling match at Bar Stadium. In glorious sunshine, the visitors Estonia raced to an early 10-0 lead with a brace of tries from pacy left wing Marten Martinson. Montenegro, playing their very first international match, hit back with a try from the impressive centre Vucicevic with Srdjan Popovic adding the conversion and a penalty to make the score 10-10 at half time.

In the second half, it was the turn of Montenegro, buoyed by a strong finish to the first period, who struck twice in the first 7 minutes after the break to make the score 22-10. The Estonians were by no means finished and incredibly, hit back with three tries of their own, with just one converted, to take the lead 22-27.

Just as it looked like Montenegro would have to settle for an opening loss, they hit back with just six minutes to go with a try from replacement Marko Novakovic to level the scores before Popovic added the conversion to take Montenegro into a 29-27 lead.

In a frantic last 5 minutes, Estonia desperately tried to make amends but stout Montenegrin defence held out to seal an historic victory for the hosts which queued huge celebrations from the players and the vociferous home support.

Top seeds Slovakia had a comfortable but useful work out against the Montenegrin President’s XV, winning by a margin of 82-0.

In the remaining games, Estonia take on the President’s XV and the two winners from Day 1, Slovakia and Montenegro battle it out to decide this years Champion. Matches will be at 2pm and 4pm respectively at Budva Stadium on Tuesday 14th April.

Note: The ENC 3 Competition will take place over a two year period with the same teams. The team ranked highest after the 2015 and 2016 competition will be promoted to Division 2D