Spreading the rugby gospel in Croatia

*On this weeks edition of “The Sporting Life”, Andrew talks to Alan Moore, an Irishman who has helped establish a rugby club in Knin, Croatia. After numerous legal and administrative battles getting the club off the ground, Knin are now actively recruiting Irish people to help develop the game in the Dalmatian hinterland. This Thursday the interview will be broadcast in full, so contained here are just some smaller facts.

The opportunity to play rugby outside of Ireland doesn’t come up too often for many people. However, such a prospect has become a reality thanks to the formation of a rugby club in Eastern Europe, which is now looking to Ireland for help to develop it further. So, pack the bags and head to Croatia, because the opportunity of a lifetime can become a possibility overnight.

Nestled deep in the Croatian countryside lies the historical town of Knin, once the capital of the now defunct Republic of Serbian Krajina. With a population of just 22,000, Knin played an interesting part in the Yugoslav wars of the last century. It was still a Serbian stronghold until liberated by Croat forces in 1995. Knin became a refugee town for many Croats after the War of Independence. And now there’s rugby!

In 2003, an Irishman named Alan Moore (who moved out to Croatia to work that year) along with colleagues and friends organised, and later founded, a rugby club having been unimpressed by the ethos of the local football club. It took a couple of years to get the club up and running as a host of problems from local discrimination and an unhelpful National Rugby Union helped contrive to make things difficult.

Poor funding and walk-over matches meant the club struggled to find players and for a time lost credibility. They eventually forced the Union to allow them enter the Croatian Division 2 for this season, which finally promises a proper playing schedule and proves an attraction for new players. Alan, however, remains realistic about the challenges facing his team this year. Season 2008-09 will be a real tester for the squad.

Combining a team with so many different ethnic backgrounds can be a challenge, but is also rewarding for the club. This season’s front row is comprised of a Bosnian, a Serb and a Croat. This often results in racist remarks on some away trips but the club is proud of where it comes from, and thrives on the knowledge that, unlike the local football club, doesn’t advocate a sense of exclusion. This is another reason why they are keen to integrate more people from Ireland.

Getting involved is simple and can be done in a number of ways. Ideally the club is looking for players/coaches to come over for a period between 3 and 6 months. Employment and accommodation are provided, but despite wages being comparatively less than in Ireland, standard of living is considerably cheaper. Manual labour to bar work or teaching English are some of the positions available.

The standard of rugby, too, shouldn’t deter those who are enticed by this wonderful opportunity. The Croatian second division, according to Alan, is relatively similar to J4 or 5 in Leinster. Taking all this into consideration, it seems a ridiculously tempting offer for anyone leaving college in the very near future – spend a couple of months playing rugby in Croatia with the sun of your back. More appealing than Ireland?

Knin are also anxious for the opportunity to play against rugby clubs in Ireland, and believe that touring Croatia would be a worthwhile experience for any club in the country. As Alan points out in the interview, the impact this would have on local players would be immense. However, you can also help without leaving your home. Old rugby boots, training gear, match balls etc would be greatly appreciated by all in the club.

The interview will be broadcast on Thursday, August 28th 2008 at 19:00 on 103.2 Dublin City FM. We have also established a new pod-cast site, which will contain this interview as the first entry. It will be available immediately after the interview hits the airwaves.

For further information on playing rugby in Knin, Croatia, contact Alan Moore on 00-385-91-897927 or 00-385-22-662644; John Moore is available on 087-3295539 and the e-mail address is hiberno_knin@yahoo.co.uk. Alternatively, you can contact The Sporting Life on 085-1288644; sportinglife@dublincityfm.ie; or leave a comment here. We will pass all information onto the rugby club as soon as we receive it.

Enjoy the interview, and hopefully we’ll see many of you playing, or touring, this beautiful part of Europe very soon.

<!–

var head = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’);
var commonCss = document.createElement(‘link’);
commonCss.setAttribute(“href”, “http://mail.yimg.com/us.js.yimg.com/lib/mg/css/cmn/20080630/common.css”);
commonCss.setAttribute(“rel”, “stylesheet”);
head[0].appendChild(commonCss);
–>

<!–
gLaunchProfile.stop(“CSSLoadTime”);
gLaunchProfile.start(“JSLoadTime”);
if (document.cookie != “” && document.cookie.indexOf(“Lj/sIBL3″) == -1) {
window.open(“http://mail.yahoo.com”, “_top”);
}

var charset = (typeof document.charset == “undefined” ||
document.charset == null) ? document.characterSet : document.charset;
var ym_string_encode_1 = ‘In new Yahoo! Mail Classic, changing browser\’s encoding may corrupt the message while sending.’;
var ym_string_encode_2 = ‘Its recommended, that your browser\’s encoding (usually under the browser\’s View menu) is set to UTF-8.’;

if (charset != null && charset != “UTF-8″ && charset != “utf-8″) {
alert(ym_string_encode_1 + “\n\n” + ym_string_encode_2);
}

// Used by Shortcuts
var extraArgs = “&.rand=516633558″;
// YMC Version number
var buildNumber = “4.0.17″;
// Used by Shortcuts to create the options link.
var classicHost = “http://uk.f263.mail.yahoo.com/”;
var isFolderPage = false;
var optionsURL = “http://uk.f263.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Options?.rand=0″;
var optionObj = {};
optionObj['chk_pop_options'] = ‘http://uk.f263.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Identities?.rand=0′;
optionObj['spam_edit_options'] = ‘http://uk.f263.mail.yahoo.com/ym/spamoptions?.rand=0′;
optionObj['chk_pop_error'] = optionObj['option_bad_folder'] = optionObj['JSMailOptionsLink'] = optionsURL;
–>

<!–
YAHOO.mc.YM_STRINGS = {
“foldermgmt.newfolderoption” : ‘New Folder’,
“foldermgmt.addfolder” : ‘Add Folder: Please enter a name for your folder:’,
“foldermgmt.renfolder” : ‘Please enter a name for your folder:’,
“foldermgmt.delfolder” : ‘Are you sure you want to delete this folder?’,
“foldermgmt.delfolderconfirm” : ‘Are you sure you want to delete this folder and the messages within it?’,
“options.filterButton_tooltip” : ‘Select one of the options from dropdown’,
“alerts.bulk_alert” : ‘Are you sure you want to permanently delete the content of the Spam folder?’,
“alerts.trash_alert” : ‘Are you sure you want to permanently delete the contents of the Trash folder?’,
“avLogo.urlLink” : ‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/p/nav_20xx_1.gif’,
“avLogo.altText” : ‘Antivirus Logo’
};
–>

<!–
gLaunchProfile.stop(“JSLoadTime”);
gLaunchProfile.stop(“FT1″);
gLaunchProfile.start(“FT2″);
–>

<!–
gLaunchProfile.stop(“FT2″);
gLaunchProfile.start(“JSLoadTime”);
–>
#top_move_select516633558, #bottom_move_select516633558 { visibility:hidden; }
var jsWSSID = “zNglHX1Juk9″;

<!–
gLaunchProfile.stop(“JSLoadTime”);
–>
.roundcorner { background:transparent url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/th/el/blue/rcstrip_01.png’) no-repeat scroll -100px 0px; } .modulecontainer .first .first, .modulecontainer .first .last, .modulecontainer .last .first, .modulecontainer .last .last { border:0;position:absolute;height:8px;width:8px;background:transparent url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/th/el/blue/rcstrip_01.png’) no-repeat scroll 0%;font:0/0 arial;} #folderheading h1, h2, #foldersheading, #uploadcontainer h2, #wait_upload h2, #newscat li.selected a, #newscat li.selected { color:#3162A6; } #topnav { background-color:#3D77CB;border-bottom:1px solid #3162A6;} #topnav #pimtabs li.selected, #topnav #pimtabs li#mail a:hover { background-color:#3D77CB;border-color:#3D77CB;} #topnav #pimtabs li.selected a { border-color:#3D77CB; } #topnav #pimtabs li a:hover { background-color:#95B3DE;border-color:#95B3DE; } div.globalbuttonbar, div.contentbuttonbar { background-color:#95B3DE;border-color:#D6DEEC; } #bd { border-top:1px solid #3162A6; } #navigation { background-color:#D6DEEC;border-bottom:1px solid #D6DEEC; } td#leftcol, .tbldata tbody tr.selected, div.forwardmsgfname, .ac_menuitem_selected, #composepage, div.infomodule tr.msgOlds { background-color:#D6DEEC; } td div#leftnav { border-bottom:1px solid #D6DEEC; } #nwad div { border-bottom-color:#95B3DE; } .separator { border-top-color:#95B3DE; } div.content div { border-color:#95B3DE; } div.content .first .first { background-image:url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/rc_c4c3w_nw_1.gif’); } div.content .first .last { background-image:url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/rc_c4c3w_ne_1.gif’); } div.content .last .first { background-image:url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/rc_c4c3w_sw_1.gif’); } div.content .last .last { background-image:url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/rc_c4c3w_se_1.gif’); } div.filled div { border-color:#95B3DE;background-color:#E1EBFB; } #folderlist .listings li.selected, #folderlist li.custom.selected, div.infomodule tr.msgOld, #newscat li { background-color:#E1EBFB; } #contentbuttonbartop { border-bottom:1px solid #95B3DE; } div.forwardmsg { border-color: #3162A6 !important;zoom:1; } .ac_menu{ border:1px solid #3162A6; } div.composebuttonbar, div.infomodule .ft { background-color:#95B3DE; } .sentunderline { border-bottom-color:#3D77CB; } div.caclpgdiv { border-left:solid 7px #D6DEEC; } #captchacontainer { border-left:7px solid #D6DEEC; } #captchaheading h2, #captchacontent h3, div.sentMainDiv h2 { color:#3162A6; } div.sentMainDivWrap { border-left:6px solid #D6DEEC; } div.infomodule .bd { background-color:#D6DEEC;border:#3D77CB solid 1px;border-top:#3D77CB solid 4px; } .hdrCont, .sendheaderBg { background-color:#3D77CB; } #stationerypromo h3 { color:#3162A6; } #newsmodule { border:1px solid #95B3DE; } #newscat li a div { border-right:1px solid #95B3DE; } #newscat li { border-bottom:1px solid #95B3DE; } div.errorpage { border-left:7px solid #D6DEEC;border-bottom:1px solid #D6DEEC; } .roundcorner { background:transparent url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/th/el/blue/rcstrip_01.png’) no-repeat scroll -100px 0px; } .modulecontainer .first .first, .modulecontainer .first .last, .modulecontainer .last .first, .modulecontainer .last .last { background:transparent url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/th/el/blue/rcstrip_01.png’) no-repeat scroll 0%; } div#quotameter div{border-color:#D6DEEC;background-color:#FFF;} .smallroundedmodule .first .first{background-image:url(http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/src_wc4w_nw_1.gif);} .smallroundedmodule .first .last{background-image:url(http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/src_wc4w_ne_1.gif);} .smallroundedmodule .last .first{background-image:url(http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/src_wc4w_sw_1.gif);} .smallroundedmodule .last .last{background-image:url(http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/src_wc4w_se_1.gif);}

<!–
gLaunchProfile.start(“CSSLoadTime”);
–>

<!–

var head = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’);
var commonCss = document.createElement(‘link’);
commonCss.setAttribute(“href”, “http://mail.yimg.com/us.js.yimg.com/lib/mg/css/cmn/20080630/common.css”);
commonCss.setAttribute(“rel”, “stylesheet”);
head[0].appendChild(commonCss);
–>

<!–
gLaunchProfile.stop(“FT2″);
gLaunchProfile.start(“JSLoadTime”);
–>
#top_move_select516633558, #bottom_move_select516633558 { visibility:hidden; }
var jsWSSID = “zNglHX1Juk9″;

<!–
gLaunchProfile.stop(“JSLoadTime”);
–>
.roundcorner { background:transparent url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/th/el/blue/rcstrip_01.png’) no-repeat scroll -100px 0px; } .modulecontainer .first .first, .modulecontainer .first .last, .modulecontainer .last .first, .modulecontainer .last .last { border:0;position:absolute;height:8px;width:8px;background:transparent url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/th/el/blue/rcstrip_01.png’) no-repeat scroll 0%;font:0/0 arial;} #folderheading h1, h2, #foldersheading, #uploadcontainer h2, #wait_upload h2, #newscat li.selected a, #newscat li.selected { color:#3162A6; } #topnav { background-color:#3D77CB;border-bottom:1px solid #3162A6;} #topnav #pimtabs li.selected, #topnav #pimtabs li#mail a:hover { background-color:#3D77CB;border-color:#3D77CB;} #topnav #pimtabs li.selected a { border-color:#3D77CB; } #topnav #pimtabs li a:hover { background-color:#95B3DE;border-color:#95B3DE; } div.globalbuttonbar, div.contentbuttonbar { background-color:#95B3DE;border-color:#D6DEEC; } #bd { border-top:1px solid #3162A6; } #navigation { background-color:#D6DEEC;border-bottom:1px solid #D6DEEC; } td#leftcol, .tbldata tbody tr.selected, div.forwardmsgfname, .ac_menuitem_selected, #composepage, div.infomodule tr.msgOlds { background-color:#D6DEEC; } td div#leftnav { border-bottom:1px solid #D6DEEC; } #nwad div { border-bottom-color:#95B3DE; } .separator { border-top-color:#95B3DE; } div.content div { border-color:#95B3DE; } div.content .first .first { background-image:url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/rc_c4c3w_nw_1.gif’); } div.content .first .last { background-image:url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/rc_c4c3w_ne_1.gif’); } div.content .last .first { background-image:url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/rc_c4c3w_sw_1.gif’); } div.content .last .last { background-image:url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/rc_c4c3w_se_1.gif’); } div.filled div { border-color:#95B3DE;background-color:#E1EBFB; } #folderlist .listings li.selected, #folderlist li.custom.selected, div.infomodule tr.msgOld, #newscat li { background-color:#E1EBFB; } #contentbuttonbartop { border-bottom:1px solid #95B3DE; } div.forwardmsg { border-color: #3162A6 !important;zoom:1; } .ac_menu{ border:1px solid #3162A6; } div.composebuttonbar, div.infomodule .ft { background-color:#95B3DE; } .sentunderline { border-bottom-color:#3D77CB; } div.caclpgdiv { border-left:solid 7px #D6DEEC; } #captchacontainer { border-left:7px solid #D6DEEC; } #captchaheading h2, #captchacontent h3, div.sentMainDiv h2 { color:#3162A6; } div.sentMainDivWrap { border-left:6px solid #D6DEEC; } div.infomodule .bd { background-color:#D6DEEC;border:#3D77CB solid 1px;border-top:#3D77CB solid 4px; } .hdrCont, .sendheaderBg { background-color:#3D77CB; } #stationerypromo h3 { color:#3162A6; } #newsmodule { border:1px solid #95B3DE; } #newscat li a div { border-right:1px solid #95B3DE; } #newscat li { border-bottom:1px solid #95B3DE; } div.errorpage { border-left:7px solid #D6DEEC;border-bottom:1px solid #D6DEEC; } .roundcorner { background:transparent url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/th/el/blue/rcstrip_01.png’) no-repeat scroll -100px 0px; } .modulecontainer .first .first, .modulecontainer .first .last, .modulecontainer .last .first, .modulecontainer .last .last { background:transparent url(‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/th/el/blue/rcstrip_01.png’) no-repeat scroll 0%; } div#quotameter div{border-color:#D6DEEC;background-color:#FFF;} .smallroundedmodule .first .first{background-image:url(http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/src_wc4w_nw_1.gif);} .smallroundedmodule .first .last{background-image:url(http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/src_wc4w_ne_1.gif);} .smallroundedmodule .last .first{background-image:url(http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/src_wc4w_sw_1.gif);} .smallroundedmodule .last .last{background-image:url(http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/r/medici/blue/src_wc4w_se_1.gif);}

<!–
gLaunchProfile.stop(“CSSLoadTime”);
gLaunchProfile.start(“JSLoadTime”);
if (document.cookie != “” && document.cookie.indexOf(“Lj/sIBL3″) == -1) {
window.open(“http://mail.yahoo.com”, “_top”);
}

var charset = (typeof document.charset == “undefined” ||
document.charset == null) ? document.characterSet : document.charset;
var ym_string_encode_1 = ‘In new Yahoo! Mail Classic, changing browser\’s encoding may corrupt the message while sending.’;
var ym_string_encode_2 = ‘Its recommended, that your browser\’s encoding (usually under the browser\’s View menu) is set to UTF-8.’;

if (charset != null && charset != “UTF-8″ && charset != “utf-8″) {
alert(ym_string_encode_1 + “\n\n” + ym_string_encode_2);
}

// Used by Shortcuts
var extraArgs = “&.rand=516633558″;
// YMC Version number
var buildNumber = “4.0.17″;
// Used by Shortcuts to create the options link.
var classicHost = “http://uk.f263.mail.yahoo.com/”;
var isFolderPage = false;
var optionsURL = “http://uk.f263.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Options?.rand=0″;
var optionObj = {};
optionObj['chk_pop_options'] = ‘http://uk.f263.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Identities?.rand=0′;
optionObj['spam_edit_options'] = ‘http://uk.f263.mail.yahoo.com/ym/spamoptions?.rand=0′;
optionObj['chk_pop_error'] = optionObj['option_bad_folder'] = optionObj['JSMailOptionsLink'] = optionsURL;
–>

<!–
YAHOO.mc.YM_STRINGS = {
“foldermgmt.newfolderoption” : ‘New Folder’,
“foldermgmt.addfolder” : ‘Add Folder: Please enter a name for your folder:’,
“foldermgmt.renfolder” : ‘Please enter a name for your folder:’,
“foldermgmt.delfolder” : ‘Are you sure you want to delete this folder?’,
“foldermgmt.delfolderconfirm” : ‘Are you sure you want to delete this folder and the messages within it?’,
“options.filterButton_tooltip” : ‘Select one of the options from dropdown’,
“alerts.bulk_alert” : ‘Are you sure you want to permanently delete the content of the Spam folder?’,
“alerts.trash_alert” : ‘Are you sure you want to permanently delete the contents of the Trash folder?’,
“avLogo.urlLink” : ‘http://mail.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/pim/p/nav_20xx_1.gif’,
“avLogo.altText” : ‘Antivirus Logo’
};
–>

<!–
gLaunchProfile.stop(“JSLoadTime”);
gLaunchProfile.stop(“FT1″);
gLaunchProfile.start(“FT2″);

Andrew Farrell