On Sunday, Ljubljana will play their second game of the season and their second home game when they host the Kragujevac Wild Boars from Serbia. The match that will start at 12:30 and be played at rugby stadium Oval in Ljubljana represents the first inter-conference match in SELAF’s new conference scheme.
The Silverhawks are in a tough situation as it is, with two clear favorites in their conference, and with a 38-6 loss to the Gladiators in the opener they need to make their only home game against teams from the South Conference count.
Like it was for the Novi Sad Duke, who knocked off Belgrade last week, the Silverhawks are in a good position to beat the Wild Boars. While Ljubljana will also miss a number of players, Kragujevac will play without three starting offensive lineman and plenty others in what the team calls the greatest number of injured players ever. On top of that they will miss several players who weren’t allowed to leave the country because of currently doing civilian army service.
The Silverhawks will again get help from American players that are also members of the Italian team Grifoni Belluno. On the other hand, some of their players left the team after the first game, and others, like David Turšič and Rok Skornšek, while licensed for SELAF in 2007 will play mostly for Austrian League’s Black Lions making themselves unavailable for most of the season.
Both teams lost their first match in 2007, and with 7 regular season games a 0-2 start would be hard to overcome. Luka Fabiani from the Silverhawks, who missed most of last year because of a knee injury, expects a tough game because of this.
“Kragujevac is a better known opponent for us this year, so considering we lost twice to them last year, we expect a better result. Still, Kragujevac was the champion in 2006, meaning that we expect a hard game. And we should. This year, the Silverhawks are better prepared. Since both teams are waiting for their first win, this game will surely be one of the hardest fought this year”, said Fabiani.