The RLEF

Courier

Issue 8 April 2009: coming to a country near you!

This Edition

• Developments in Lebanon • France name new head coach • Maltese government recognise Malta Rugby League

• New president named in UAE

Five times champions LAU Immortals are in the midst of a record- breaking season in the Bank of Beirut Rugby League Championship.

They have won 11 out of 11 matches, smashing Balamand’s streak of eight matches and are set to face either Jounieh, USJ or AUB in the May 16 th final.

The LRLC’s Development Dept has hailed the success of its youth

programme in conjunction with the Ministry of Education.

Technical staff will hold two national team trials in April in preparation for a proposed “Junior Cedars” tour to Jeddah to play a KSA RL Select XIII

The country’s locals- only national side, Liban Espoir, is set to tour UAE in June to play two matches against the UAE Falcons. Pictured is Ibrahim El Amran, player of the day at one of LRLC schools development days. In an interview with the Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII’s official website, newly re-elected president Nicolas Larrat set

out his organisation’s priority: to increase participation numbers

through the creation of new clubs and more teams in existing

clubs.

The FFRXIII’s six vice-presidents are charged with overseeing

this project.

In late February the FFRXIII hired former St Helens and Great Britain scrum half Bobbie Goulding as France’s new national team coach.

In March the Maltese government recognised the Malta Rugby League. RLEF Malta Development Officer Anthony Micallef said: “This has been a project that has ultimately taken us a number of years to achieve. The recognition is a credit to everyone involved with the MRL and a positive step forward for Rugby League in the Maltese Islands”.

The MRL will formalise the recognition with Kunsill Malti Ghall-iSport (KMS), the government’s national organisation responsible for supporting, developing and promoting sport throughout Malta and Gozo, in May.

The MRL have also announced Portside Lounge as the Official Home Venue Partner for Maltese Rugby League. The seaside venue at Sliema broadcasts all engage fixtures, sells official MRL apparel, and will host receptions for touring rugby league teams .

Dubai native Mohammed Rahma has been named the inaugural president of the Emirates Rugby League, which is in the process of finalising association status, thereby gaining the right to officially represent the state in international competition.

The new board has earmarked a new representative side – the UAE National XIIIs, consisting of only local Emirati players – that will be developed alongside the already established UAE Falcons, which includes all nationalities.

The ERL, in keeping with Dubai’s reputation as a tourist hotspot, has announced a busy summer of events, with Liban Espoir set to tour Dubai in June, followed by Saddleworth Rangers, making a second visit to the Emirates, in July, and rounding off with a one-match tour of Lebanon in August.

Domestically, May 22 nd will see the Super9s Series played at the breathtaking 7he Sevens Stadium, while the inaugural domestic championship will be launched in October 2009.

Staying in the Balkans, on 7 th March the Serbian Student league began, with two games played at Belgrade University Sports Centre, with defending champions FAK getting off to a winning start. Five teams are competing this year, compared with three in 2008.

David Bakic, the SRL’s director of student competition, paid tribute to British clubs Hainault Bulldogs and Huddersfield Underbank Rangers for donating equipment to the student teams.

Also in Eastern Europe, the engage Super League broke new ground in eastern Europe when, on 20th February, matches were broadcast on Sport Klub TV in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Montenegro.

Competing teams from the Serbian student championship

This year has seen the first University Championship of Rugby League take place with seven Catalan Universities.

The championship was played over two days. The first, on February 26 th , at Girona’s University and the second, in Barcelona, (Mar Bella rugby field) on March 12 at one of the city universities. The championship, organized by the Catalan Association of Rugby League, precedes the first Catalan domestic league, to be played from April to June.

The participant teams at the University Championship were:

University of Vic Ramon Llull University University of Perpinyà University of Girona Autonomous University of Barcelona Polytechnic University of Catalonia Pompeu Fabra University

The University of Perpinyà was the clear winner of the competition. This result was expected given the high level of the university players of the North of Catalonia. But the level of the rest of the universities was also very high, emphasizing the Ramon Rull University and the University of Girona, which stood up to the Perpinyà players.

Following the two Gulf countries’ nascent domestic schools championships in late February, three KSA schools from Jeddah

travelled to Qatari capital Doha to play a two-day 9s tournament –

as reported in the last issue of the RLEF Courier.

The first of its kind in the region, hosts Al Khor International School won the seven-team tournament, which will act as a catalyst for further regional youth development.

The competing teams from the 9s tournament, with Al Khor International School in the middle

The FIRL is preparing busily for Italy’s first national championship since the 1960s, a time when the national team played against the likes of France and Australia.

Four newly formed rugby league clubs - La Rocca XIII, Mastini XIII, Piemonte XIII and Monster XIII - will compete in the June competition, based around Venice and Padova in the north east.

National coach Carlo Napolitano will attend, with players to be selected for July’s Rugby League European Shield.

Padova’s University Sports Centre will host FIRL’s 2009 Simone Franchini 9s on 13 th July, with 12 teams from all over Europe expected to participate in the festival of rugby league.

Following the Doha tour, rugby league partisans in Jeddah have

pursued steps to towards rugby league becoming entrenched in the

oil-rich kingdom.

In conjunction with the RLEF, this group has put together a proposal

for a member of the Saudi royal family currently involved in Jeddah’s

sole rugby club. Kingdom rules state that all federations must install a member of the royal family as president.

Scotland Rugby League has a new general manager in local Douglas Campbell, who will be based out of Sport ’s offices.

Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium will host the biggest ever Scottish rd Schools Rugby League tournament on Sunday 3 May as part of engage Super League’s Magic Weekend.

More then 180 children from 14 Primary Schools across Scotland will be involved in the competition which will be played on pitches adjacent to the main stadium prior to the first engage Super League game on the Sunday.

Wales Schoolboys play England Youth on Good Friday, 10 th April, with Warrington-based twins Ben and Rhys Evans, who went north from Bridgend to further their rugby league careers, in the side named by head coach Anthony Loxton.

Cwm Rhymni school is the best represented school with three players from the side that were recently crowned Wales Champion

Schools winners

Jamaica’s national championship has continued its impressive progress, expanding to seven clubs this year.

The new team, which has been put through its paces by RLEF development officer Romeo Monteith, is still in the process of choosing a name.

Russian Andrey Volkov and Latvians Vilmars Sokolovs and Andris Andersons are due in Portsmouth on 14th April to attend a coaching course at the Royal Navy base.

The trio are hoping to attain RLEF Level 1 status to further assist the growth of the game in their homelands.