СИНГИДУНУМ

The first written trail about the Serbs who were playing rugby is from the World War I. While the war was raging in Europe, Serbian Support Society and the Government of the Republic of Serbia came up with an idea to send a number of children, which came along with Serbian Army to Greece, to Great Britain and France to school. The first group of ten children from Serbia came from Corfu to Edinburgh in June of 1916.

They were placed in George Heriots School which was their home for the next three years. There were 25 of them in total. This group of young people immediately became very popular in Edinburgh, and left great trace. Serbian boys were between the ages of 13 to 18 and stayed in Edinburgh until 1919.

Very soon after their arrival they learned rugby and begun to play. They showed a lot of talent, and great number of them played for their school teams. The best of them was Toma Tomic from Leskovac who became a regular first team member.

First Serbian Rugby XV Team of George Heriots School:
Standing in the first row (from left to right): Lazovic, Deretic, Kovacevic, Scotsman Cold, Headmaster Markovic, Molerovic, Savic and Osmanbegovic.
Seating second row: Marjanovic, Dulkanovic, Pavlovic, Tomic (the team’s captain), Ilic, Milosavljevic, Stankovic
Kneeling third row: Maletic, Tutunovic

It was these who played the first international game under the name Serbia against the selection of Britain’s Dominion in front of 10000 people in Edinburgh on 11 of April 1918. Our boys won 8:3.