A hat-trick of tries from winger Davyd Zazimko and an impressive debut from scrum half Jett Cleary, who kicked six goals, proved to be the perfect warm up for Ukraine ahead of the European Championships, as they beat Netherlands 56-12 at RC Octopus, Uden in overcast conditions.

Ukraine head coach, Dan Beardshaw, commented: “That was a very good victory for us, and I’m extremely proud of the boys. Our young players really stepped up and played some outstanding rugby league. 

“Credit to The Netherlands — they were well drilled and caused us problems throughout the game — but I thought the effort, skill, and attitude from some of our men were very impressive. I was particularly impressed with our domestic players, Volodymyr Karpenko in the front row and Liubomyr Beznoshchuk, who both made a solid impact on the game. 

“We’ll sit down and have a look at the video between now and the Italy game next week to see what we will need to work on, but we have a tough day of travel ahead of us, so recovery will be top of our list.”

Netherlands, who are preparing for their matches in Euro B, started strongly but couldn’t breach the visitor’s line and fell behind when a Cleary kick was hacked on by Orest Adamyk and pounced upon by Jonah Ngaronoa.

Zazimko claimed his first try, but the hosts hit back when Damon Koolstra scored to the right of the posts, converting his own effort. Back-to-back penalties gave Ukraine field position and Zazimko pounced again, Cleary adding the conversion from the touchline. 

Zayn Sluvinsky was denied a try for a double movement but Ukraine were in again shortly afterwards when Ostap Kozak powered through on the left to make it 22-6 at the break. Netherlands winger Hamish Wragg put his foot in touch as he found space which would have narrowed the gap early in the second half, and Ukraine responded by Ngaronoa claiming his second try.

Cleary put Owen Hromow in shortly afterwards, and Sluvinsky added a try just after the hour mark. Beznoshchuk gained his reward diving over in the right corner, Oleksandr Skorbach converting.

Netherlands’ efforts were rewarded after a sustained period of pressure when Arie-Tjerk Razoux Schultz shrugged off defenders to find his way to the line, but Zazimko added his third try, veteran Skorbach goaling and ending the scoring with a try of his own.  

“I’m really proud of our players but unfortunately we were second best,” said Netherlands head coach, Dave Hunter. “Ukraine thoroughly deserved their win and brought some quality players to the occasion. We should have been better defensively and need to improve our one-on-one tackling, and I’m confident our game with Malta next weekend will be a much better performance.”