Posting six of their nine tries in the final twenty minutes, two to winger Mike Prins, Netherlands emerged convincing 52-6 winners over Serbia in their men’s senior international at the FC Car Konstantin stadium in Nis.

The Oranje opened impressively, Tom Van Bokhoven and Dimitri Haringa – who also kicked three goals – with quick fire tries to establish an early 12-0 lead. Strahinja Stojiljkovic replied but, importantly, in the final minute of the first half, Mavi Gevers went over for a converted try to make it 18-6 at the break.

Netherlands men’s head coach, David Hunter, noted: “We knew if we could withstand the first 20 minutes from Serbia that we'd be in with a shot, and it was a really physical opening to the game. In the second half we did the small things right and that gave us the opportunity to post points at the end.”

Serbia, who went down to 12 men with eight minutes to go and are preparing for European World Cup qualifiers in France next month, had an equal share of possession up to the hour mark, but a number of mistakes in possession meant that they could not exert any concerted pressure and that showed in the later stages as the Netherlands ran rampant. 

“The guys haven’t played together since July and that was a tough task,” said Serbia men’s head coach Darren Fisher. “I was pleased that we've had some debuts and players coming back from injury but there's no excuse for some of the aspects we put out in the second half. The big focus is on October, we needed a good competitive game, and we'll sit down and decide out of that domestic squad who will be included going forward.”