When the Cyprus Rugby team take the field in the Serbian capital on the 28th. April, they will be confident, that win or lose they will be promoted. The Mouflons top Rugby Europe Conference Division 2 with 14 points from 3 games with the final event to be decided. The runners-up, Austria have completed their games and have 13 points, with Serbia only achieving 6 points from 3 games, but they are the favourites to win in Belgrade according to the Serbian Bookmakers.
Rugby is the most rapidly growing team game in the world, mainly as it is now an Olympic and Commonwealth sport and therefore attracting much bigger spectator groups, and because Rugby Sevens, a shortened, fast furious form of the game, provides the smaller nations with an opportunity to compete with the leviathans. The Mouflons have their own supporters facebook site, and like many of the soccer clubs market the National Colours through the supporter’s club.
Whatever the outcome the National Team will be in Conference Division 1 next season and will commence the steep climb back to their former glory when they stunned the Rugby World by remaining victorious internationally for an astonishing period of 6 years and a total of 24 games.
Even mighty New Zealand (All Blacks), bowed the head, in rugby parlance: ‘Ducked the Nut’ to the Mouflons. The New Zealand based Cypriot writer and poet, Chris Moisa, a Mouflon stalwart, has to explain to his hardy antipodians, that Mouflons are a native mountain sheep, which probably accounts for the speed and stamina.
Johny Stavrinou, the President of the Cyprus Rugby Federation is adamant that Cyprus will build on the junior players advancing through the town clubs and academies, and forsees a time ‘…..when all the national team will be home bred. The debt we owe to the diaspora players is immeasurable, and we will depend on them to fulfil the role of administrators, officials and coaches: that is how rugby develops. The new faces are already there’. He went on to state ‘Our coaches inform me we are building. The interest in the game is increasing, the schools and Sports Authorities are behind us and watching how some sports, previously viewed as marginal, are now attracting national attention. The medals haul at the Commonwealth Games is an excellent example. Rugby is within that category’.
It is expected that the Mouflons will give a good account of themselves against the Serbians.