6th Rugby Sevens World Cup
Kriegiersien 24–12 Queenisa
An important and needed victory against Queensia, now Hebtiaka awaits. A must win if they want to preserve a chance to reach the quarter-final, but Kriegiersien is the underdog. For today, let us go back to the beginning.
Rugby in Kriegiersien – What was first? Kriegiersien or the egg?
Sport was always important in Kriegiersien and first predecessors of rugby were played already in ancient times.
Killerball, Scorpionball and Blood Bowling were sports similar to what later would become rugby and other sports. It is unclear from where today's rugby came to Kriegiersien, some say from Lisander, others Ko-oren, Hebtiaka, Maxtopia or the Star Gods.
Anyway, there was no real league system and no deeper understanding of the sport and Kriegiersien rugby was played differently as in the rest of the world for a long time.
Like in most sports at the time the most professional players came from the military, were the academies and army groups played it on highest levels and crowned champions.
Only when Kriegiesien started to participate in international tournaments the rules of Rugby League, Rugby Union and Rugby Seven were fully adapted. Rugby 7, as Olympic sport, most promoted by the state, while the others become more and more sponsored by companies. Still, many players switched between the three ‘versions’ and there was no clear favourite. Even the Kriegiersien Rugby system still had and has its fans.
The wild amateur level is still big in Rugby, together with Scorpion Ball and Soccer the most beloved sport of the nation, but professional rugby leagues emerged and became a hard competition to the military leagues.
The gap between the commercialised sport, the state funded military teams and the amateurs who dream of the good old days grows stronger.
Greatest success of the nation was the triumph at the XIII Olympics in Republica in Rugby seven, the only title in Rugby for a Kriegiersien team, that couldn’t be repeated.
Damian Druid was the captain of this golden squad, now getting old and on his way to retirement.
“I would have ended my career years ago, but there is not enough talent following. Sad thing for such a rugby nation. With so much wasted potential”, he told us.
We will see how far Kriegiersien comes with this old team at this world cup and what the future will bring.