Slavia Hradec Krakove are Czech champions for the first time after a dominant thirty-eight to nil Czech Grand Final win over reigning champions RLC Krupka Dragons in front of a noisy home crowd of over four hundred in the Autumn sun. Slavia finished 2018 with a 100% win record and added the Grand Final trophy to their already won CZRLA First Division shield and the pre-season Czech 9’s trophy. 

Slavia Captain Jan Heininger said ‘We have worked really hard this year as a group from pre-season onwards and we are delighted to be Czech champions for the first time. We have won every game we’ve played in 2018 which is a remarkable achievement. It hasn’t been easy and even today’s score suggests an easy match but it wasn’t.  We know how dangerous Krupka can be and we worked so hard to nullify their attacking threats.’

Dragons veteran Antonin Berk said ‘We were out of sorts today which is really disappointing. We never got going  at all, a lot of which is down to Slavia’s fast and hard defence. Well done to Slavia for the year they have had but we will be back next year looking to regain our crown.’

Slavia raced into an early lead after three minutes when scrum half Tomas Ricica side stepped through the Dragons defence before touching down. Roca, Mecava and Skorepka each added unconverted tries for Slavia in the first thirty minutes before Dragons steadied themselves and showed some of their renowned resilience.

Seventeen year old winger Jakub Tichy scored three minutes into the second half after a good kick from Slavia player coach Ladislav Cintler. Dragons suffered a massive blow when young full back Filip-Daniel Kittl was stretchered off after a collision in the lead up to that try. Man-of-the match Ondrej Preininger increased Slavia’s lead to twenty-four points to nil with a superb solo effort after forty seven minutes. Mudroch converted to add two points.

Dragons tried to get back into the game led by brave efforts from Captain Jaroslav Bzoch, Vesely, Berk and Dohockin in an attempt to come from behind as they had a week earlier in their semi-final win at the combined Lokomotiva Beroun/Vrchlabi Mad Squirrels. Their efforts were to no avail as Preininger scored his second try of the game after seventy one minutes following a good break by Ricica. Mudroch added the two points.

Rihr added a further try with a superb solo run which Mudroch converted to seal Slavia’s thirty eight to nil win.