Lithuania set new Rugby World Record

taken from here

Lithuania have written their name into rugby's history books after beating Serbia 77-5 on Saturday to record an 18th consecutive test victory and surpass the previous record in the men's Game held by New Zealand and South Africa.

A nation of three million people, Lithuania's run began on 27 May 2006 with a 23-17 away win over Hungary in Esztergom and has now seen them beat 12 different countries across Europe with only four matches decided by a single score.

Lithuania have already secured the Division 3A title and promotion to the third level of the European Nations Cup, but the record provides a confidence boost ahead of their Rugby World Cup 2011 qualifier with Ukraine on 8 May.

Victories over Israel (19-3) and the higher ranked Netherlands (6-3) have earned Lithuania the play-off with Division 2A champions Ukraine, the winner of which will face Romania home and away to determine Europe's representative in the cross-continental play-off for the 20th and final place at RWC 2011.

"It's great to achieve 18 successive wins and be the record holders, but we haven't yet achieved our goal," captain Mindaugas Misevicius told AFP. "We want to qualify for the World Cup in New Zealand."

Lithuania scored 13 tries against Serbia, centre Gediminas Liutrus and flanker Andrius Martinskas grabbing hat-tricks with Tomas Zibolis, Justinas Vasiliauskas, Egidijus Detronis, Edvardas Zilius, Kestutis Marcijauskas and Marius Andrijauskas the other scorers in the record-breaking win.

The All Blacks had set the record of 17 consecutive test matches between 18 September 1965 and 6 June 1969, a sequence ended with a 17-6 loss to South Africa in Pretoria in July 1970.

The Springboks, then world champions after their success at RWC 1995, equalled this run between 23 August 1997 and 29 November 1998 with England's 13-7 win at Twickenham a week later denying them the record outright.