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Young Ukrainian refugee finding his feet in Ireland on the rugby pitch

Vlad Kotsiuba was on the Athlone Buccaneers squad that won the Connacht U-14 cup last Sunday

Vlad and Anna Kotsiuba. Photograph: Inpho

Eamon Donoghue's face
Eamon Donoghue
Sat Apr 30 2022 - 06:00

Vlad Kotsiuba's mother saw him smile for the first time since arriving from Ukraine last month as his team celebrated winning the Connacht Rugby under-14 cup at the Sportsground in Galway.

Anna Kotsiuba travelled to Ireland, via Poland, with her two sons, her mother, mother-in-law and her sister. Her husband, a mechanic, remains in Ukraine where he is in the defence forces fighting the Russian invasion of their homeland.

"It's a really terrible time for Ukrainians," Anna told The Irish Times with the help of a translator. "I had a lot of depressing feelings, but now in Ireland we are okay. But not fully because we are really nervous about their father and everyone in Ukraine.Vlad has had to be the man of the family here."

The Kotsiuba family have been staying in the Central Park hotel in Leopardstown since arriving in Ireland nearly seven weeks ago. While Ukraine is far from a rugby stronghold, Vlad had experience with the oval ball in his hometown of Khmelnytskyi and quickly took up the opportunity offered by volunteers to get involved in Ireland.

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“In Ukraine I played rugby for two years,” Vlad says. “Rugby is not at all popular in Ukraine but in Khmelnytskyi we have a club with a really good coach so thanks to him I can play rugby.

“I like that it’s so fast, dynamic and you feel the adrenaline and all the emotions. Here it helps not to think about the war. I feel a lot of emotions – happiness and some nostalgia remembering playing in Ukraine.”

Vlad’s first match was the quarter-final of the Connacht Cup, and the young tighthead prop played his part as his team, Athlone Buccaneers, won that game and the next two, including the decider against Carrick-on-Shannon at the Sportsground. He has already attracted the attention of Connacht Rugby and their development squad, with whom he has attended a training session.

“When he takes the ball on – they are just bouncing off him and they can’t handle him,” says his coach at Buccaneers, Charlie Cooper. “He certainly takes a few with him before they take him down.”

Cooper, who was heavily involved in the development of Irish internationals Jack Carty and Robbie Henshaw at club and school level, explains that at over 6ft in height Vlad has been a big addition to the team.

“The other lads are just in awe of him . . . He doesn’t talk much but they are always happy to see him, he’s kind of a legend now . . . We’ve seen him only four times, once at training and at the three matches, so we can’t really start him, but we bring him on and he makes a huge impact. The opposition are kind of saying, hold on, who’s this guy? He turned the game around in the final, we were down a couple of points and we brought him on and we scored a try as soon as he came on and he made a couple of big bursts down the field.

“We’ve a medal presentation in a couple of weeks and we hope he’ll come down and have the barbecue at the club and be part of the gang again.”

While Vlad has dreams of a future in rugby – his biggest dream sees him returning home to Ukraine: “I would like to continue my sporting career and maybe in the future I can be a professional rugby player, it’s a dream. Or maybe I could be a coach. It doesn’t matter to me, I really love this game. But when the war ends we would like to go back to Ukraine, as soon as it’s possible we want to return to Khmelnytskyi. It’s a very beautiful and incredible country.”

Studying online

Vlad is currently studying online with his school in Ukraine: “Sometimes there are sirens and the teachers have to go underground to the bunkers so sometimes there are no lessons.”

Amid all the changes and challenges, Anna has been blown away by the Irish welcome her family has received.

“We’ve found the Irish people to be really friendly, smart and they really care about us, we really appreciate it. I would like to say thank you to everybody who gave Vlad this opportunity to play in Ireland and in this amazing team.”

Members of the Buccaneers club have already emailed the Ukrainian rugby union extending a welcome to all in Ireland who want to play the game.

“It’s been so nice for him because he’d played a bit at home and this was probably the only thing that wasn’t brand spanking new to him and he could identify with,” says Cooper. “Look, it’s the same game wherever you are, you could be in Australia or Fiji or Ukraine or here and it’s the same old game and hopefully the same values wherever you go. For a lot of other Ukrainians they could click with the game too and we’d be glad to have them.”