Czechs head for Ukraine with Kafka and Jagr

Czech Republic play Ukraine in Odessa in the opening salvo of the European Nations Cup for this season.

It is actually Round 2, for the Europeans nations Cup, popularly called the Six Nations B, is being played over two years.

At the end of the two years Georgia, Romania and Portugal each have 13 points, Czech Republic 9, Russia 7 and Ukraine 5.

The 5 for Ukraine could well be misleading as they are yet to win a match. It is a match which Czech Republic are expected to win well.

The matches being played now are to avoid the weather problems that beset Central Europe in early spring, made more obvious as five if the six sides are Central European. In the last championship matches were postponed and venues shifted because of the icy weather.

Czech squad:

• 1 Jean-Baptiste Souček (Mielan, France), 2 Jan Oswald (Tatra), 3 Pavel Štastný (Lombez Samatan, France)
• 4 Vlastimil Madry (Praga), 5 Miroslav Nemecek (Begles Bordeaux, France)
• 6 Martin Hudák (Vyškov), 8 Jan Žíla (Tatra), 7 Ladislav Vondrášek (Esher, England) (captain)
• 9 Pavel Syrový (Praga), 10 Martin Kafka (Fukuoka, Japan)
• 11 Martin Jágr (Toulon, France), 12 Michal Kolár (Waterloo, England), 13 Pavel Vokrouhlík (Sparta), 14 Ivan Smetana (Vyškov)
• 15 Jan Rohlík (Saint Nazaire, France)

Bench:

• Jiří Skall (Sparta), Jan Zachariáš (Sparta), Jan Kubálek (Říčany), Jirí Buryánek (Dragon)
• Václav Jursík (Sparta), Vítězslav Dosedla (Dragon), Martin Snídal (Vyškov)

Staff:

• Christian Galonnier, head coach
• Josef Fatka, assistent
• Václav Dvořák, physio
• Marek Švíř, kit manager

Referees

• Hervé Dubes (France)
• Vincent Azoulay, Jean-Luis Fillon (both France)

Standings

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Jan Machacek
CzechRugby.info