The summer season is over in Dubrovnik and now it’s time for the rugby season to start.

Dubrovnik’s own rugby team, Invictus Rugby Club, start their new season with hope and optimism after seriously reinforcing their ranks. The first comes in the shape of David Casey, a New Zealander, who has been brought in to train the senior team and to inject some energy and belief as well as the rugby culture from the southern hemisphere. And along with Casey is another foreign import, this time on the playing side as Patrick Rowntree, from England, has been drafted in to play the opening part of the season.

Dubrovnik’s rugby adventure kicks off this weekend when on Sunday they take on Lokomotiva from Zagreb at 2.00 pm in the Gospino Polje stadium in Dubrovnik.

In fact the rugby weekend in Dubrovnik starts on Saturday when a former All Black, Gary Braid, will be joining an Invictus training run in Cavtat in the morning at the club’s ground. This will be followed in the afternoon with a womens reunion rugby presentation which should be great fun.

This season the Invictus Rugby Club will compete in the Adria 7s regional league, the Croatian Championship in Rugby 7s as well as the Croatian 7s Cup and in the 2nd division Croatian Rugby Chamionship where they will compete with a full team of 15 players. This weekend, the opening of the league, will be historical as it will be the first time that a full rugby team has represented Dubrovnik competitively. We wish them well for this opening weekend.