This week has seen the Challenge Cup begin in the UK. Rugby Leagues crown jewel and the Oldest Rugby League competition in the world sees the Amateur and professional teams pitted against each other. Elsewhere Lebanon and France continue with their seasons.
Aside from the warm up matches that Super League and Championship teams are having this week has seen the start of the Challenge Cup tournament. This is Rugby Leagues FA Cup and is the most prestigious and oldest competition in World Rugby League. Its a knock out competition that sees any rugby league team play in it, including professional and amateur clubs.
The first round saw some of the amateur clubs pitted against each other to move into the second round. On the 26th the draw for the second round was made.
Results:
Second round draw:
The weekend saw some of the round 10 matches that were postponed due to Snow played. Bottom dwellers Carpentras caused another upset as they beat Pia emphatically 32-8. Lezignan to form annihilated Villeneuve 52-12 and Limoux smashed St. Gaudens.
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | PT |
| 1. Lezignan | 11 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 130 | 28 |
| 2. Pia | 11 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 115 | 24 |
| 3. Limoux | 11 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 125 | 22 |
| 4. Carcassonne | 10 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 83 | 21 |
| 5. Villeneuve | 11 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1 | -30 | 19 |
| 6. UTC | 11 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 2 | -29 | 17 |
| 7. Carpentras | 11 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 2 | -2 | 15 |
| 8. Avignion | 10 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 | -132 | 14 |
| 9. St Gaudens | 11 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 1 | -230 | 12 |
On the weekend two trial games were played as well. Les Catalans Dragons played against Toulouse. The Dragons came out with a good win 46-22 but Toulouse should be happy with them being able to penetrate the Super League teams defences. The other was Carcassonne against the Champion ship big-guns Widnes. Here Carcassonne showed that the best of the LER can compete at this level with the Canaries winning 32-14. The crowds were 4185 and 2850 respectively for the two matches.
The Bank of Beirut Championships continued this week. There was a rematch this week between the Wolves and Jounieh who played last week. Looks like the Wolves learnt something in that time as they cam out and absolutely hammered the Jounieh 34-4. In the other match LAU beat Balamand 34-6. The standings are:
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | PT |
| 1. LAU | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 304 | 10 |
| 2. Balamand | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 30 | 6 |
| 3. AUB | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 23 | 6 |
| 4. Jounieh | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 6 |
| 5. USJ | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | -58 | 4 |
| 6. Wolves | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -83 | 4 |
| 7. AUST | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | -188 | 0 |
The Presidents XIII has been announced for the match against the Liban Espoir team:
Some more great news is that the sport will get a big push in schools. The ministry for Education has asked the LRFL to do up an action plan for schools.
The NRL season is starting to get closer and teams are finalising their player rosters. Willie Mason is still without a club however Manly seem interested in him. Fuifui Moimoi has resigned for two more years with Parramatta which gives them a massive boost and will be one of the favourites for this years title again.
ACEBOOK
RSS FEED
WITTER
