"The Arrow- Ak Bars" flew towards the second championship.

      The Kazan team started the national championship with a victory

      There is the first victory of "Strela-Ak Bars" in the national championship. Photo: provided by RK "Strela-Ak Bars"

      With a bonus victory — 31:7, for which the maximum possible 5 points in rugby are awarded, "Strela-Ak Bars" began the season. The Kazan team defeated "Krasny Yar" at home. Now, on May 17, Kazan fans will have the opportunity to watch a match against another team from Krasnoyarsk — "Yenisei-STM." Details are in the report from "Real Time."

      The match on May 9 logically began with a minute of silence, during which young rugby players brought out portraits of the deceased war veterans. It should be noted that rugby, like field hockey, is a relatively young sport for our country, practiced since 1967, and therefore there were few front-line veterans in it by definition.

      The wind "blew out" Marais from the lineup

      The confrontation between "Strela-Ak Bars" and Krasnoyarsk's "Krasny Yar" became the anniversary, the 20th in the history of the teams. Since 2020, the Krasnoyarsk team has won 11 matches, lost eight, and drawn once. However, there were earlier matches of the Kazan team under the names "Agrouniversitet" and "Strela-Agro." The game started with a strong wind that "blew out" the previously almost irreplaceable Kobus Marais from the lineup. The substitute, Peter Stinkamp, was almost flawless, except for one game moment that we will touch on later. The start of the game was in favor of the guests, who scored and converted a try. A try by Rikkert Korff and a conversion by Stinkamp, followed by a successful penalty kick, led to the Kazan team going into halftime with a minimal lead — 10:7.

      After that, the teams could have changed the score in two instances. "Krasny Yar" almost took advantage of a mistake by Stinkamp while clearing the ball, but Johannes Tromp timely cleaned up. On the other hand, Andrey Karzanov nearly grounded the ball in the opponent's in-goal area after a kick pass. But in the end, the final score of 31:7 was set by Evgeny Tkachenko, whose try was converted by Stinkamp. At the end of the game, the "arrows" fended off the powerful onslaught of the Krasnoyarsk team, thus defending the bonus for tries and earning 5 points instead of 4. A nice gift for themselves and personally for the halfback of "Strela," Stepan Khokhlov, who was celebrating his 28th birthday.

      Johannes Tromp was one of the unnoticed heroes of this game. Real Time / realnoevremya.ru

      Anniversary game

      Overall, both scoring actions left a slight taste of regret. If Tkachenko had scored a similar try in the previous game against "Dynamo," and if the "arrows" had defended against the onslaught of the "white-blue" as they did in the match against the Krasnoyarsk team, we would have had not just a bonus for victory, but the Super Cup. But — and here we must mentally return to the lost match for the trophy against the Dynamo players — this failure was due to individual mistakes by some players of the Kazan team. Sometimes we lost the ball after an inappropriate long cross pass by Frank Nodye when it would have been better to simply pass to a nearby player, sometimes we played forward, as was the case with Tkachenko, and lost the chance for a try. At other times, we chose a corridor when we could have converted a penalty. And we sought happiness in post-match "penalties."

      In any case, this is another defeat against the Dynamo players, if we recall the losses in the "sevens," which have simply been piling up one after another. Let's remember again the defeat in the final of last year's rugby-7 championship when one inaccurate cross pass in attack led to an interception by Leighton Exton, resulting in the decisive "championship" try. Celebrating another try. Real Time / realnoevremya.ru

      Change of positions in the "sevens"

      The opening game of "Strela-Ak Bars" in the Russian championship came at a time when the played matches had already allowed fans to quench their gaming hunger accumulated during the winter off-season. There were also two rounds in the "sevens," the Super Cup, and the first round, which the Kazan team missed due to the absence of an opponent. It should be said that the start for the full-fledged champions of the previous season cannot be rated five points. The two opening rounds in rugby-7 left a disturbing impression. In the first round, the Kazan team finished third, losing in the semifinals to "Dynamo." In the second round, they lost to both Dynamo and Penza, finishing in fourth place. As a result, the resolution of issues in the rugby-7 championship will be left for the fall when the third and fourth rounds will take place. For now, at the intermediate stage, the Kazan team is in fourth place, trailing behind "Dynamo" and the Krasnoyarsk tandem — "Yenisei-STM" and "Krasny Yar." This is somewhat surprising in terms of the dynamics of recent years, when the Kazan team competed with Penza, which only plays in the "sevens," Peter, and squeezed into the leaders with "Dynamo," while Krasnoyarsk only fought for medals in classic rugby.

      It is unusual to see outside the leading trio "Lokomotiv-Penza" — based on the start of the current season, the team does not seem to be one that can contend for anything. It should be noted that the off-season seriously changed the composition of the Penza team, which lost Potikhanov and Ryabov, who moved to Kazan, as well as Krovyakov, Malan, and Nodye, who returned to Kazan. The loss of Podrezov and former Kazan player Jeremy Jordaan, who went to "Dynamo," as well as Chris Hollis, was replaced by unfamiliar Georgians, South Africans, and citizens of Fiji, who are not yet known to the wider Russian audience.

      If we recall that Dmitry Sukhin returned to Krasnoyarsk last year and faced the "arrows" in the match against "Krasny Yar," along with South Africans Rudi van Rooyen and Stefan de Wit, it remains to state that in three years, the championship lineup of "Lokomotiv" has changed almost by half. The current lineup started at 7:55 in the confrontation with "Dynamo," which is alarming. This is also because the current veterans of "Lokomotiv" Andrey Polivalov, Sergey Sekisov, Sergey Yanyushkin played in Kazan for "Strela-Agro" during the 2013 Universiade season. Omari Grinyaev. Real Time / realnoevremya.ru The calendar of the national championship is arranged so oddly that for the entire upcoming month, the fans of the "arrows" will be "tormented," watching the home matches of their favorite team. On May 17, the tension will rise as the current champions will host the favorites of Russian rugby in the 21st century — "Yenisei-STM." And on May 30, the Kazan team will have the opportunity to take revenge for the defeat in the Super Cup against "Dynamo." Not a calendar, but a name day for the heart, considering that the beginning of summer can be spent watching broadcasts of matches of the upcoming football World Cup.

      Jaudat Abdullin

      More news about the event:

      "Strela-Ak Bars" is flying towards the second championship

      The Kazan team started the national championship with a victory

      There is the first victory of "Strela-Ak Bars" in the national championship. 00:55 10.05.2026 Real Time - Kazan

      Captain of "Ak Bars" Marchenko: "We have grown as a team"

      Captain of "Ak Bars" Alexey Marchenko believes that his team has progressed and grown as a collective this season. 19:49 09.05.2026 IA Tatar-inform - Kazan

      Gatiyatulin: "We have come a long way and deserve the opportunity to fight for the goal we have pursued"

      Head coach of "Ak Bars" Anvar Gatiyatulin, recalling his first experience as a children's coach and the first major tournament, compared it to the upcoming playoff final series against "Lokomotiv." 18:48 09.05.2026 IA Tatar-inform - Kazan

      "Ak Bars" is preparing for the Gagarin Cup final

      Kazan hockey club "Ak Bars" has reached the final series of the Gagarin Cup. 17:55 09.05.2026 ProKazan.Ru - Kazan

      "We'll eat, sleep...": for the trip to Yaroslavl, "Ak Bars" chartered a train

      Fans chanted the name of the Kazan team's coach

      "Ak Bars" is preparing for the Gagarin Cup final against "Lokomotiv." 17:54 09.05.2026 Business Online -