The victory gave Maccabi its first national title in seven years and completed a perfect 13-0 season. It also ended Yizreel\u2019s run of five consecutive championships.<\/p>\n
The final was close early, with Maccabi leading 23-17 at halftime. Tel Aviv took control after the break, scoring twice to open a 37-17 lead before pulling away for a decisive win in front of hundreds of spectators.<\/p>\n
Maccabi had beaten Yizreel 27-16 in the final round of the Premier League playoff stage, a match that served as a preview of the championship game. Tel Aviv won all three meetings between the teams this season.<\/p>\n
The squad included seven Israel national team players and players from Canada, Chile, Australia, Georgia, Ukraine, Italy and France.<\/p>\n
Among Maccabi\u2019s leading players this season were captain Ohad Reuveni; Roy Goldin, who helped lead the team throughout the campaign; Canadian player Jack Sher, a master\u2019s student at Tel Aviv University; and Mor Klipon, a Golani Brigade soldier who recently returned to club activity after reserve duty.<\/p>\n
Joseph Lodmer, who immigrated from Italy and returned to the team after extended reserve service, and Chilean player Danny Elzarki, a university student and startup entrepreneur recently released from military service, also played key roles.<\/p>\n
Maccabi\u2019s leading scorers this season included Itay Oslon, Gal Aviram, who immigrated from Australia, and Nazir Gazanov, a Dagestan-born former Russia national team player.<\/p>\n
The title was Maccabi Tel Aviv\u2019s 15th national championship. Its previous title came in the 2018-19 season.<\/p>\n
Hapoel Yizreel remains Israel\u2019s most decorated rugby club with 24 championships.<\/p>\n
The rivalry between the clubs has shaped Israeli rugby for decades. Maccabi Tel Aviv won the country\u2019s first official rugby championship in the 1974-75 season, while Yizreel claimed its first title in 1980-81.<\/p>\n
Since Ra\u2019anana won the national championship in 2001-02, only Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Yizreel have won the Israeli rugby title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The victory gave Maccabi its first national title in seven years and completed a perfect 13-0 season. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-691960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}