Juvenia Kraków

RzKS Juvenia Kraków
Full name	Rzemieślniczy Klub Sportowy Juvenia Kraków
Nickname(s)	Smoki (Dragons)
Founded	8 December 1906; 1973; 51 years ago (rugby team)
Location	Kraków, Poland
Ground(s)	Stadion Juvenii Kraków (Capacity: 800)
Chairman	Leszek Samel
Coach(es)	Konrad Jarosz
Captain(s)	Maciej Dorywalski
League(s)	Rugby Ekstraliga
1st kit	2nd kit
Official website
	juvenia.info

Juvenia Kraków (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjuvɛɲa ˈkrakuf]) is a Polish rugby union club based in Kraków, Poland. They were founded in 1906 (like Wisła Kraków and Cracovia) as a football club. The rugby union team was founded in 1973 and currently plays in the Rugby Extraleague.

History of the rugby section

The rugby section was founded in 1973. The first rugby match was played the following year against Posnania, who had been relegated from the Rugby Extraleague; Juvenia lost 60–0. For the next three years, Juvenia did not win a single match. They had their first win in 1976, and in the same year they achieved a semi-final place in the Polish Cup, where they lost to Czarni Bytom 12–15.

Juvenia came close to promotion to the top tier on two occasions. The first was in 1982, when they drew with Budowlani Olsztyn (7–7), who were promoted. The second chance occurred two years later, in 1984, when they also missed out on promotion.

In 1986, the rugby section was moved to Korona Kraków, which caused the suspension of the section, only to return in 1993. In 2000, the team was promoted to the Rugby Ekstraliga, where they played for three seasons. In 2003, the club was relegated to the I liga Rugby but returned to the Rugby Extraleague in 2005. In 2006 Salwator became its main sponsor, and the first team changed its name to Salwator Juvenia Kraków. They ended that season on the highest note, finishing in the third place. Since 2009, Salwator is no longer the team sponsor and the name has changed back to Juvenia Kraków. In 2012 Juvennia were relegated but won promotion to the top flight league in 2014 but financial problems forced the club back to division 1 but within a year and with new sponsors and management Juvenia won promotion again to the Ekstraliga. In the 2015-16 season Juvenia were successful in a series of relegation play-off games, and retained the Ekstraliga status and repeated the same success in the 2016-17 season and the following rugby season. In 2018-19 Juvenia maintained their place in the Ekstraliga without having to face the relegation play-off matches. The 2019-20 season saw Juvenia in 4th place and a finalist in the Polish Cup competition. The club’s grassroots project also yielded positive results with the U.18s reaching the final of the prestigious Dubai 7s Tournament and winning the Polish league and cup competitions outright in the same season. ^[1]

The board

President – Leszek Samel
Vice president – Maciej Mączka

First team squad

Forwards

Maciej Bielawski
Daniel Glynn
Leandro Narvaez
Jerzy Głowacki
Adam Grabski
Mateusz Ingarden
Łukasz Kościelniak
Jan Krawiec
Krzysztof Pszyk
Przemysław Rejentowicz
Marcin Siemaszko
Szymon Szczepański
Tomasz Świadek
Kamil Trzos
Tomasz Zagrajek

Backs

Jacek Bielawski
Nestor Aguirre
Kamil Bobola
Maciej Dorywalski
Bartłomiej Fiszer
Krzysztof Gola
Juliusz Krawiec
Usaia Navia Rataku
Patryk Okrajek
Bartłomiej Sierant
Maciej Sokołowski
Marcin Sokołowski
Mariusz Tumiel
Grzegorz Zawojski