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 16 January 2023)
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

Overall

Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Ukraine national XV at test level up until 18 March 2023:

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	% Won
Austria	2	2	0	0	100%
Belgium	9	4	5	0	44.44%
Croatia	5	4	1	0	80%
Czech Republic	9	4	5	0	44.44%
Denmark	3	2	1	0	66.67%
Georgia	9	0	9	0	0%
Germany	9	3	5	1	33.33%
Hungary	3	2	0	1	66.67%
Israel	1	1	0	0	100%
Latvia	3	2	1	0	66.67%
Lithuania	6	4	2	0	66.67%
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	9	9	0	0	100%
Switzerland	5	2	3	0	40%
Total	133	64	67	2	48.12%

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: Valerii Kochanov

Caps updated:

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Serhii Sukhikh	Prop	(1978-10-28) 28 October 1978		RC Olymp
Mykola Kirsanov	Hooker	(1980-04-24) 24 April 1980		RC Olymp
Oleksii Novikov	Prop	(1995-01-01) 1 January 1995		RC Olymp
Matvii Bocharov	Lock	(2000-01-01) 1 January 2000		RC Olymp
Oleksandr Lomakin	Lock	(1980-05-02) 2 May 1980		RC Olymp
Serhii Nikitin	Back row	(1990-03-18) 18 March 1990		RC Polytechnic
Vitaly Orlov	Back row	(1987-10-05) 5 October 1987		RC Olymp
Serhii Cherniachenko	Back row	(1990-01-17) 17 January 1990		RC Olymp
Vadym Sivak	Scrum-half	(1992-08-26) 26 August 1992		RC Podillya
Volodymyr Voitov	Fly-half	(1988-08-10) 10 August 1988		RC Olymp
Dmytro Prodeus	Wing	(1998-10-19) 19 October 1998		RC Polytechnic
Viacheslav Ponomarenko	Centre	(1982-09-27) 27 September 1982		RC Olymp
Oleh Kosariev	Centre	(1988-10-06) 6 October 1988		RC Olymp
Denys Primushenetskiy	Wing	(1998-10-22) 22 October 1998		RC Polytechnic
Myroslav Shuliak	Fullback	(1993-10-10) 10 October 1993		RC Podillya
Serhii Liutyi	??	(1998-11-28) 28 November 1998		RC Epokha-Polytechnic
Valentyn Porokhonchuk	Hooker	(1992-01-29) 29 January 1992		RC Kredo-63
Oleg Valius	??	(2000-11-28) 28 November 2000		RC Podillya
Daniil Korovin	??	(1990-08-06) 6 August 1990		RC Epokha-Polytechnic
Andrii Tsarevskyi	??	(1987-01-17) 17 January 1987		RC Olymp
Oleksandr Marshuba	Scrum-half	(1993-02-27) 27 February 1993		RC Olymp
Narek Manukyan	Wing	(1992-06-04) 4 June 1992		RC Rebels
Denys Zakhlivnyi	??	(1992-05-29) 29 May 1992		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
Vitalii Kramarenko	Prop			Budowlani Łódź	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Ruslan Radchuk	Lock	29 November 1986 (age 34)		RC Kredo-63	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Daniil Hapon	Scrum-half	18 November 2001 (age 19)		SC Sokil	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Oleh Zarovnyi	Fullback	19 September 2002 (age 19)		Odesa National Team	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Dmytro Mokretsov		24 March 1988 (33)		Ogniwo Sopot	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Oleksandr Khomenko		28 November 1990 (age 30)		RC Podillya	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Eduard Vertyletskyi				Pogoń Siedlce	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Roman Kulakivskyi	Lock	5 November 1986 (age 34)		RC Kredo-63	v. Poland, 9 October 2021
Yaroslav Davydov		1 January 2001 (age 20)		RC Olymp	v. Poland, 9 October 2021

Coaches

Current coaching staff

Name	Nationality	Role
Maksym Kravchenko	UKR	Manager
Valerii Kochanov	UKR	Head coach
Oleh Kvasnytsia	UKR	Coach
Olena Zadorozhna	UKR	Physio

Former coaches

Name	Years	Tests	Won	Drew	Lost	Win percentage
Valerii Kochanov

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)