This week the International 9s results are in, the final being played out between the Fiji Bati and Balmain-Ryde Eastwood. A great start to their tour. In Lebanon the Tri-Series was completed over the weekend as well the next round of the Elite 1 in France was played. Some news from Papua New guinea and the USA as well.
A round up of the results from the International 9s played on the weekend. The teams that won their pools were: Balmain Ryde-Eastwood Tigers (Pool A), Cabramatta (1) (Pool B), The Entrance Tigers (Pool C), Windsor Wolves (Pool D), Fiji (Pool E), Tonga (Pool F). Wentworthville Magpies & Australian Indigenous will also progress through to the Quarter Finals of the Cup as the two highest ranked runners up:
The Tri-series in Lebanon was completed over the weekend with the Federation XIII and Liban Espoir playing it out. With new selection methods the teams this year have been evened out and in the past Liban Espoir dominated, this year they have lost both matches. The Federation XIII won 26-4 over the Espoir to finish second in the series.
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Presidents XIII | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 72 | 4 |
| 2 | Federation XIII | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -2 | 2 |
| 3 | Liban Espoir | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -66 | 0 |
The Junior Cedars train-on squad for the MENA Championships in April has been selected. the squad is: Ali Kang, Ayman Akl, Bilal Ajaj, Carl Baroud, Daniel Habbal, Fawaz Abdo, George Farah, George Yazbeck, Karim Tannir, Khaled Masri, Khoder Naserddine, Liam Laba, Mohamed El Hassan, Mohamed Omar Zein, Nour El Baba, Omar Marhaba, Radwan Masri, Ryan Osseiran, Sultan Saadeh, Wael samad, Ziad Zohbi. The active reserves are Amen Soultan, Basher abed el Risk, Bassel Tlayje, Ibrahim Raad, Imad Arnaout, Mohamad Hamwi.
Round 14 of the French Elite 1 Championships were played. Results are Lezignan 56-18 Carpentras, Limoux 50-34 Pia, Carcassonne 46-06 St Gaudens/Toulouse, Avignion 40-22 UTC and Montpellier 22-33 Villeneuve. The table stands as:
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Lezignan | 14 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 336 | 40 |
| 2 | Limoux | 14 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 160 | 36 |
| 3 | Pia | 14 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 184 | 34 |
| 4 | Avignion | 14 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 34 | 31 |
| 5 | Carcassonne | 14 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 66 | 28 |
| 6 | Villeneuve | 14 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 | -49 | 28 |
| 7 | Carpentras | 14 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 0 | -93 | 25 |
| 8 | UTC | 14 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 0 | -15 | 23 |
| 9 | St Gaudens / Toulouse | 14 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 0 | -347 | 18 |
| 10 | Montpellier | 14 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 0 | -276 | 16 |
Some sad news that former Kumuls icon Aquila Emil was shot in Port Moresby last week. Former Kumuls Ben Bire, Bal Numapo, John Unagi, Johannes Kola, Wamil Gul and Maima Kawagle, who were teammates of Emil said that “for someone who dedicated his time to developing rugby league, this was a terrible loss for the game”. Our thought go out to Emil’s family.
Some news from the Denver Wolverines. This was posted on their Facebook site earlier today.
After carefully reviewing our options, we feel it is the best choice at this time to align the Denver Wolverines RLFC with the USARL. The overall level of communication with the USARL has been excellent, and both the USARL and the Denver RLFC share the same vision for RL in the United States. ~Jeff Eberle Co-Founder Denver RLFC
Also David Niu is in Las Vegas this week. According to his tweets he is in meetings for the AMNRL and Tomahawks. I guess he is also checking out the venue at the Vegas 7s to see if its a possible venue for future AMNRL games.
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There is a new proposed RL team for Las Vegas called the Blackjacks. Not sure who they will be aligned with but lets hope we hear something very soon about the AMNRL as it appears the new USARL are growing stronger by the week.
Any news on the Star Group?
So looks like they will not be called the black jacks anymore. In a tweet at 2:54 am today David Niu in a tweet let slip that the name of the Las Vegas team will be the “Vipers” which was the name forced upon the Pittsburgh team and one of their gripes. Not heard about anything from the Vegas team about this though.
The Las Vegas team is aligned with the AMNRL as are the Stockyarders and Southern Chiefs. I think the Chicago team will be playing this year but the other two are looking at 2012 understand… which is weird as the Denver team said that they wont be ready till 2012 and were dropped…. so there is someinternal politicing going on there.
Nothing from the stargroup about any of this.
Thanks for the Wrap up Druzik.
Sad news coming from PNG, i wish Aquila Emil’s family and friends the best of prayers and thoughts.
As for the USA, i hope we get a clear idea of what’s happening between the USARL and AMNRL. Hopefully everything turns out clear soon rather than later.
Yes that what we all hope…. but till then we have the International In Phili to look forward too. 🙂
A potential venue for future AMNRL games?
Have you seen the venues they play at currently? Absolutely no chance!
It’s time we stop listening to the tweets of David Niu, and focus on what we have, and the realistic options rugby league in the US has for the up coming season, and what the opportunities and potenials are for the next couple of years.
Each time only has a first grade team. No reserve grade. No juniors. No schools. There is so much work that needs to be done, before the league has a strong following, before every team can play at a stadium facility, and before any tv rights could be secured.
Check out Norway, huge news there with Super League games being shown, and talk domestically during half time. That is massive news. That is proper news. That is something which can be worked from, a proper plat form.
I’m not saying the US isn’t a viable option for rugby league, all i am saying is that a s..t load of work needs to be done before we get ahead of ourselves with tv rights and stadium facilities. The USARL will be more professional, but still ammateur. They will start by adding reserve grade teams, and holding school training days. All good stuff, a good starting point. But until schools, colleges, universities and others start having teams, Rugby Union will remain the prominent rugby code in america. This is dispite the code being hated by so many Americans.
It is funny how Jamaica and Canada are not getting ahead of themselves. It’s time David Niu cuts the twitter bullshit out, as too Marcus Vasilokopolous, and start treating it both seriously, and realistically.
I want to represent the PNG Kumuls, but being an Aussie, who isn’t a good enough player, it’s not realistic. We can all have dreams, but we don’t have to post them to the world.
Shaun… those are good points… and strongly put.
Look I can only go by what I read or get sent.
You are right about Norway and my next article I was going to mention that. Am wanting to get a bit more info from Wazza though.
Interesting comment about the Vipers name as the new Las Vegas RLFC Facebook page says the Blackjacks. This is part of the frustration that people are experiencing with RL in the USA with conflicting news etc.
I see the OC Outlaws in Southern California have had a fair bit of activity on their FB page and now have a new website so it will be interesting to see what they are doing this year, if anything. I see great potential for RL in California so lets hope it is done properly there and these drama’s between the AMNRL and the USARL don’t hurt plans for these new teams that are trying to get up and running. I bet they are not too happy with what they see happening in the States at the moment when they should be getting support and guidance to build their clubs but look like being stuck between two competing organisations.
Well the Blackjaks are the RugbyUnion team there and I think it was them who are trying their hand at League now as well. So not sure how that will actually affect their name…. I have contacted them and not had any response yet.
OK the California team are gonna have some issues with that name as there already exists a team called the Orange County Outlaws. They are Baseball team in Orlando Florida?!
From the looks of it on Facebook though… they have good support from the AMNRL so they should be OK. Not sure what their schedule is about playing but, again if we believe what we are seeing on twitter (only place to get any sort of info from Niu these days) then AMNRL will have at least 8 teams playing this year.
So sad to hear what happend to aquila he did alot of great work for rugby league in png especialy at a domestic level it realy is a huge loss to png like so many png people my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.
Druzik are you able to give us some more info on the dispute that is going on in the boardrooms of png rugby league at the moment apparently there was a agm with the intrem board with tas bateri from the rlif attending to see if a agreement could be reached and so that the 4 million $ that was donated to the rugby league by the aus govt be un frozen from a bank acount and put into development apparently just as they started the meeting police enterd the room and served the interim board with another injunction from those that are disgrunled at the moment, the meeting had to be stoped or those that continued would have been arrested not a good look for the game in png especialy with a member for the rlif present now i hear the png govt are threatening to take over the running of rugby league in png that idea makes me very uneasy
Its very sad to hear indeed.
Basically what you have said sums it up pretty well. Its hard to get any real news out of PNG as there is no website and the PNG National seems to swing from one side to the other in the way they talk about it. I don’t have any contact in PNG so its hard to know what is going on there. I know as much as you guys do. But we all have seen the effects of this with the PNG team in last years 4 Nations basically being a 3rd string side.
I’ll try Tas about getting info…. but I think with this being such a sensitive issue am not sure he will be willing to say anything.
thanks druzik anything you could dig up would be great last rumour i heard was that png may loose there automatic spot in the world cup and be forced to qualify because of all of this if that is true then it would be a sad day for png rugby league considering we as a nation were making huge advances in 2008 , 2009 and then because of this power strugle had a massive fall in the four nations loosing our spot in the world cup may put us a decade behind other 2nd tier nations
Yeah see what I can do.
I haven’t heard anything about them losing their spot. I find that highly unlikely as a team even made up of purely locals would pretty much beat convincingly any of the current qualifiers.
If that were to happen they probably would come into the Atlantic region and I seriously cannot see the Jamaica, USA or South Africa competing with them.