History

The beginnings

The idea of rugby was born in 1953 among the athletes and rowers of Mladost, at a time when the game was known only from the stories of those who had travelled to Great Britain or France. The first teacher and coach was Nikola Nick Kopajtić, who on his return from Canada passed on his knowledge of rugby to the young men from the Sava. There was no official competition yet, so friendly matches were played.

Mladost played its first international match on 29 November 1954 at the Maksimir stadium, in front of more than 10,000 spectators, against a selection of the British occupation forces in Austria (BTA). The visitors from the country where rugby was born won 14:11. Mladost were represented by Branko Štimac, Vladimir Krišković, Mihovil Rađa, Slavko Mrkoci, Đeki Srbljenović, Ivica Pajer, Žiga Marinkov, Rajko Miler, Boris Banašin, Vili Franjković, Boris Korenčić, Živko Skroza, Branko Arsić and Vlado Veverec.

The first titles

The first Yugoslav championship in 1957 was won by Jedinstvo from Pančevo, with Mladost second. Rugby club Jedinstvo was founded on the same day as HARK Mladost. The very next year, 1958, Mladost became national champion, and was runner-up in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1972. In the Cup the Mladost seniors played ten finals and won it in 1959, 1961, 1962 and 1967.

Since 1978 the club's emblem has been a mole with a rugby ball in one hand and the other raised with its fingers in a V. Mladost players are still called the Moles (Krtice), and the ground the Molehill (Krtičnjak).

The club that created clubs

Mladost is the foundation of rugby in Croatia and in the neighbouring countries. Mladost players inspired or themselves founded RK Nada from Split (M. Rađa), RK Lokomotiva (Ž. Skroza), RK Zagreb (R. Bartolić), RK Ploče (I. Batinović), RK Čelik from Zenica (S. Kapetanović), RK Ljubljana (S. Tartaglia), ARK Zrinski from Zagreb (Z. Sumajstorčić) and RK Zadar (M. Zubak).

Recent times

The under-18s won the Croatian Championship in 2007 with a 28:10 victory over Nada from Split (24 November 2007). The seniors won the Cup in 2015, 2018 and 2020, and the Croatian championship title in 2019, 2024 and 2026. In rugby sevens the club was champion in 2012, 2016 and 2019, and in 2017 finished 5th at the European Club Championship in Russia.

Reports from matches and tournaments from 2010 to 2024 are preserved in the news archive (in Croatian), and results since 2017 on the Fixtures and results page.

The club's history up to 2014 was described by Zoran Sumajstorčić in the book Prvih 60 (The First 60, 1954 - 2014).