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.