Ukraine national rugby union team

Ukraine

Nickname(s)	Kozaki (The Cossacks)
Emblem	Trident
Union	National Rugby Federation of Ukraine
Head coach	Valerii Kochanov
Captain	TBC
Home stadium	Various
First colours Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	36 (as of 24 February 2021)
Highest	24 (2004)
Lowest	42 (2018)
First international
Georgia 19–15 Ukraine (Tbilisi, Georgia 21 November 1991)
Biggest win
Austria 0–78 Ukraine (Vienna, Austria 14 May 1994)
Biggest defeat
Romania 97–0 Ukraine (Bucharest, Romania 19 March 2005)
Website	www.rugby.org.ua

The Ukraine national rugby union team (Ukrainian: Збірна України з регбі) represents Ukraine in men's international rugby union competitions. Nicknamed The Cossacks (Kozaki), is one of the tier 3 teams in Europe that currently compete in the second division of the Rugby Europe International Championships in the Rugby Europe Trophy, a competition which is just below the Rugby Europe Championship where the top 6 countries in Europe (apart from the teams in the Six Nations) compete. They are yet to participate in any Rugby World Cup.

History[]

Ukraine made their international debut in 1991 against Georgia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, losing the close game 15-19. The two nations played again three days later, where Georgia won again with the score of 6-0. The following year Ukraine met Georgia once more for a two match series, losing both matches. In their first match of 1993. they defeated Hungary 41-3 for their first ever win since their independence. This was followed by another three wins in succession, against Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. This streak would however end in 1994 with a loss to Denmark.

In 1996 Ukraine defeated Latvia 19-3; the match would be the start of a nine match winning streak) which would be the longest thus far. The wins carried on until 1998, where they lost to the Netherlands 13-35. The late 1990s, Ukraine saw mixed results and defeated teams like Poland and the Czech Republic, but they lost games to the likes of their neighbours Russia, Georgia and Romania.

Ukraine played in the first division of 2005-06 European Nations Cup, the tournament where the best teams in Europe outside of the Six Nations and the tournament that also served as a qualifier for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. Ukraine lost all ten of their fixtures and were relegated to Division 2A while within the qualifiers, the bottom three teams went on to Round 4 of the European World Cup qualifiers, so Ukraine would find their selves playing against Russia twice to determine who goes through to the next round of the qualifiers. Ukraine lost both games by the scores 11-25 and 37-17.

Record[]

World Cup[]

World Cup record									World Cup Qualification record
Year	Round	P	W	D	L	F	A		P	W	D	L	F	A
1987	Part of USSR: Not an independent country								Part of USSR: Not an independent country
1991	Part of USSR: Not an independent country								Part of USSR: Not an independent country
1995	Did not enter								Did not enter
1999	Did not qualify								8	6	0	2	274	108
2003									4	3	0	1	100	54
2007									12	0	0	12	105	618
2011									10	5	0	5	150	203
2015									10	5	0	5	267	228
2019									5	0	0	5	52	215
2023									Automatically eliminated
Total	0/9	0	0	0	0	0	0		49	19	0	30	948	1426

European Competitions[]

Season	Division	G	W	D	L	PF	PA	+/−	Pts	Pos
2000	European Nations Cup Second Division	4	1	0	3	54	135	-81	6	3rd
2000-01	European Nations Cup Second Division	5	4	0	1	65	61	+4	13	2nd
2002-04	European Nations Cup Second Division Pool A	8	7	1	0	200	74	+126	23	1st
2004-06	European Nations Cup First Division	10	0	0	10	77	556	-479	10	6th
2006-08	European Nations Cup Second Division 2A	8	3	0	5	117	128	-11	14	4th
2008-10	European Nations Cup Second Division 2A	8	5	0	3	140	109	+31	18	1st
2010-12	European Nations Cup First Division 1A	10	1	0	9	124	442	-318	5	6th
2012-14	European Nations Cup First Division 1B	10	5	0	5	227	227	0	24	3rd
2014-16	European Nations Cup First Division 1B	10	8	0	2	244	165	+79	36	2nd
2016-17	Rugby Europe Trophy	5	0	0	5	52	215	-163	0	6th
2017-18	Rugby Europe Conference 1 North	4	2	1	1	92	63	+29	12	2nd
2018-19	Rugby Europe Conference 1 North	4	3	0	1	113	29	+84	14	1st
2019-20	Rugby Europe Trophy	5	2	2	1	60	74	-19	14	3rd
2021-22*	Rugby Europe Trophy	2	1	0	1	63	64	-1	5	3rd

Overall[]

Updated after match with  Lithuania.

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	% Won
Austria	2	2	0	0	100%
Belgium	8	4	4	0	50%
Croatia	4	3	1	0	75%
Czech Republic	9	4	5	0	44.44%
Denmark	3	2	1	0	66.67%
Georgia	9	0	9	0	0%
Germany	8	3	4	1	37.5%
Hungary	3	2	0	1	66.67%
Israel	1	1	0	0	100%
Latvia	3	2	1	0	66.67%
Lithuania	5	4	1	0	80%
Luxembourg	1	1	0	0	100%
Moldova	11	4	7	0	36.36%
Netherlands	9	6	3	0	66.67%
Poland	14	11	3	0	78.57%
Portugal	5	1	4	0	20%
Romania	7	0	7	0	0%
Russia	9	0	9	0	0%
Spain	2	0	2	0	0%
Serbia and Montenegro	1	1	0	0	100%
Slovenia	1	1	0	0	100%
Sweden	8	8	0	0	100%
Switzerland	3	2	1	0	66.67%
Total	126	62	62	2	49.2%

Recent Matches[]

Matches
9 October 2021 12:50 EEST (UTC +3) (1 LBP) Ukraine  24–27  Poland Report Yunist Stadion, Lviv Attendance: 2,000 Referee: John Catteau (Belgium)
23 October 2021 14:00 EEST (UTC+03) (1 LBP) Lithuania  37–39  Ukraine Report Regbio stadionas, Šiauliai Attendance: 500 Referee: Ethan Glass (Switzerland)

Current Players[]

The following players were selected for the 2021–22 Rugby Europe Trophy match against Lithuania.^[1]

• Head Coach:

Caps updated:

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
	Prop	(1978-10-28) 28 October 1978 (age 43)		RC Olymp
	Hooker	(1980-04-24) 24 April 1980 (age 41)		RC Olymp
	Prop	(1995-01-01) 1 January 1995 (age 27)		RC Olymp
	Lock	(2000-01-01) 1 January 2000 (age 22)		RC Olymp
	Lock	(1980-05-02) 2 May 1980 (age 41)		RC Olymp
	Back row	(1990-03-18) 18 March 1990 (age 31)		RC Polytechnic
Vitaly Orlov	Back row			RC Olymp
	Back row	(1990-01-17) 17 January 1990 (age 32)		RC Olymp
	Scrum-half
	Fly-half	(1988-08-10) 10 August 1988 (age 33)		RC Olymp
	Wing	(1998-10-19) 19 October 1998 (age 23)		RC Polytechnic
	Centre	(1982-09-27) 27 September 1982 (age 39)		RC Olymp
	Centre	(1988-10-06) 6 October 1988 (age 33)		RC Olymp
	Wing	(1998-10-22) 22 October 1998 (age 23)		RC Polytechnic
	Fullback	(1993-10-10) 10 October 1993 (age 28)
	??			RC Epokha-Polytechnic
	Hooker	(1992-01-29) 29 January 1992 (age 30)		RC Kredo-63
	??
	??			RC Epokha-Polytechnic
	??	(1987-01-17) 17 January 1987 (age 35)		RC Olymp
	Scrum-half	(1993-02-27) 27 February 1993 (age 28)		RC Olymp
	Wing
	??			RC Epokha-Polytechnic

Recent call-ups[]

The following players have also been called up to the squad within the last 12 months.

Player	Pos	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club	Latest call-up
	Prop			Budowlani Łódź	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
	Lock	29 November 1986 (age 34)		RC Kredo-63	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
	Scrum-half	18 November 2001 (age 19)		SC Sokil	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
	Fullback	19 September 2002 (age 19)		Odessa National Team	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
		24 March 1988 (33)		Ogniwo Sopot	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
					v. Poland, 9 October 2021
				Pogoń Siedlce	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
	Lock	5 November 1986 (age 34)		RC Kredo-63	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
		1 January 2001 (age 20)		RC Olymp	v. Poland, 9 October 2021

Coaches[]

Current coaching staff[]

Name	Nationality	Role
	UKR	Manager
	UKR	Head coach
	UKR	Coach
	UKR	Physio

Former coaches[]

Name	Years	Tests	Won	Drew	Lost	Win percentage

Notable players[]

• Andriy Kovalenco
• Vitaly Orlov
• Ivan Soroka and Alex Soroka - Ukrainian qualified Irish underage internationals

See also[]

• Rugby union in Ukraine
• National Rugby Federation of Ukraine
• Ukraine national rugby sevens team
• Ukraine women's national rugby sevens team
• Sport in Ukraine

References[]

External links[]

• rugby.org.ua - Official Site (in Ukrainian)