Andrei Cebotari and Adrian Adam were named the best Moldovan rugby players of 2023. Cebotari will receive the award in rugby 15s, while Adam - in Olympic rugby sevens. They both have played for foreign clubs, IPN reports.

“I thank you all the coaches in my career and also my family. The year 2023 was a very busy one, with many competitions in both rugby 15s and rugby sevens. There were a lot of positive emotions,” said Andrei Cebotari, who plays for the Polish championship leader Bialystok.

“The year 2023 was quite rich professionally. We managed to transfer to a team with greater ambitions in Series A. I’m glad that I contributed to achieving the goal in rugby sevens,” stated Adrian Adam from Villorba team.

For the second consecutive year, Nicoleta Meșin was named the best female rugby plyer in Moldova, while Mihai Muțurca, who was the captain of the Under 18 national team and Sirius team, won the award for the best young rugby player.

The title of the best referee went to Anatol Tipa, while the coach of the national rugby 15s team Veaceslav Titica became the best coach of 2023. Returning to the Trophy Division will be the big challenge of 2024 for the national rugby 15s team. For the purpose, they need to defeat Bulgaria on May 4 in Chisinau and implicitly in the playoffs.

“2023 was a difficult, eventful year. We set a lot of tasks for ourselves at the beginning of each year. I try to focus on performance as well. I’m referring to the national teams here. But I can’t forget about the development of rugby in Moldova either. In the end, I can say that it was a rather successful year,” said the president of the Rugby Federation of Moldova Anatolie Curechi.