So I finally have a small break in my travels. I am in Albany New York at the moment, having done a short visit last night to Boston because – well because I could! Its quite an amazing country in the USA and parts of where I drove, it reminded me of seeing something in the TV series Davy Crockett! Anyway today there its lots and lots of news in the International Rugby league Family. With news from the RLEF on this years World Cup Qualifiers to news from the Jamaican Hurricanes and the Donnybrook Cup. There is lots going on and of course there is a round up of last weeks results.
The opening round of the NRL has finally got underway and so now we have all three major Rugby League competition playing, though one is coming to the back end of its season. The results from round 1 are: Brisbane 14-16 Nth Queensland, Sydney City 40-29 South Sydney, Gold Coast 16-25 St George/Illawarra, Melbourne 18-6 Manly, New Zealand 18-24 Parramatta, Canberra 40-12 Cronulla, Penrith 8-42 Newcastle, Canterbury 24-14 Wests. The table stands as:
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Newcastle | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 2 |
| 2 | Canberra | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 2 |
| 3 | Melbourne | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 2 |
| 4 | Sydney City | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 2 |
| 5 | Canterbury | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 |
| 6 | St George / Illawarra | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 |
| 7 | Parramatta | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| 8 | Nth Queensland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | Brisbane | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 0 |
| 10 | New Zealand | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -6 | 0 |
| 11 | Gold Coast | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -9 | 0 |
| 12 | Wests | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -10 | 0 |
| 13 | South Sydney | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -11 | 0 |
| 14 | Manly | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -12 | 0 |
| 15 | Cronulla | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -28 | 0 |
| 16 | Penrith | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -34 | 0 |
On of the amazing stats from the round is that it was record breaking 1st round for the NRL in terms of crowds, the NZ warriors even managed to get over 40,000 people to their game. Pretty amazing.
In the Super League round 5 was played and the surprise leaders in the competition maintain their lead. Some of the gig news was Willie Mason getting man of the match in the Hull KR win, justifying his move, at least in the first round. The results are: Leeds 46-12 Salford, Wakefield 6-22 Warrington, St Helens 16-27 Harlequins, Castleford 34-24 Catalans, Huddersfield 50-16 Bradford, Wigan 14-12 Hull FC, Hull KR 40-22 Crusaders. The tables stands as:
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Huddersfield | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 56 | 8 |
| 2 | Castleford | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 49 | 8 |
| 3 | Warrington | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 31 | 8 |
| 4 | Harlequins | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 8 |
| 5 | Wigan | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 7 |
| 6 | Leeds | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 6 |
| 7 | St Helens | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 5 |
| 8 | Hull KR | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| 9 | Bradford | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | -46 | 4 |
| 10 | Hull KR | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -14 | 2 |
| 11 | Catalans | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -34 | 2 |
| 12 | Salford | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -88 | 2 |
| 13 | Crusaders* | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -18 | -2 |
| 14 | Wakefield* | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -60 | -2 |
* Teams have 4 points deducted for financial issues
Round 18 of the French domestic Competition sees a new leader with Linoux scoring a win and taking the lead in the ladder. Lezignan 14-18 Limoux, Carpentras 6-82 Carcassonne, UTC 20-38 Pia, Avignion 52-18 Montpellier, St Gaudens/Toulouse 18-38 Villeneuve
| Team | P | W | D | L | B | PD | Pt | |
| 1 | Limoux | 18 | 15 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 262 | 48 |
| 2 | Lezignan | 17 | 15 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 552 | 47 |
| 3 | Pia | 17 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 286 | 41 |
| 4 | Avignion | 18 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 62 | 39 |
| 5 | Villeneuve | 18 | 10 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 38 |
| 6 | Carcassonne | 18 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 166 | 37 |
| 7 | UTC | 18 | 6 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 19 | 31 |
| 8 | Carpentras | 18 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 0 | -269 | 29 |
| 9 | St Gaudens / Toulouse | 18 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 0 | -391 | 24 |
| 10 | Montpellier | 18 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 0 | -480 | 21 |
In the Copa Italia more of the quarter finals have been played, the round up is: February 16 Fenice 26-10 and 12 March 2011: Briganti 14-16 Fenice. Also Catania Rugby and CUS Catania played their first Coppa Italia Rugby League match on 8th March. CUS won that encounter 14 to 8. Now the semi-finbals and final will be played on the 20th March with the semis being only 40 minutes each and the final a 60 minute match.
The USA Tomahawks and Ireland Wolfhounds squads will both assemble in Philadelphia Wednesday in preparation for Saturday’s Donnybrook Cup rugby league international.
The Wolfhounds arrived in Philly Tuesday night, while the American players fly in from all parts of the country on Wednesday morning. Both countries named their 17-man rosters last week – the USA side contains seven new faces and 10 returners from the team that won the Atlantic Cup in Jacksonville last November.
Four of the Tomahawks hail from Hawaii including Kelly McGill, Mike Tuala, Andrew Malafu and Sione Taufa. McGill, Tuala and Malafu are all first timers and were all identified by USA assistant coach and team manager Jack Breen, who’s based in the islands, while Taufa played in the Atlantic Cup and scored his first international rugby league try in a winning performance against Canada.
Among the players coming back from the triumphant Atlantic Cup effort are skipper Apple Pope, Conway Maraki, Mike Cartwright, Nate Smith, Andrew Kneisly, Mike Brazill, Curtis Cunz, Sean Taylor, Gareth Baxendale and Taufa.
Pope and Maraki in particular played huge roles in the Tomahawks’ victories in Jacksonville and will be looking to resume that stellar form on Saturday. And one other player of note is big second rower Salesi Tongamoa. From New York, Tongamoa has played for the New York Knights and New Haven Warriors in the American National Rugby League and is now based in Atlanta. He’s expected to prove quite a handful for the Irish.
Ticketing and hotel information, as well as interviews with players and coaches and other info on the teams and the fixture can be accessed at http://www.donnybrookcup.com
The Hurricanes Rugby League are pleased to announce a new partnership with Australian based company Sportswisdom. The company is co-owned by former Melbourne Storm and Australian rugby league representative Scott Hill.
The partnership is a significant step forward for the future development of the Hurricanes Academy program, as Sportswisdom will provide educational books to all Academy players which will further enhance the knowledge and understanding for the players as to what it takes to become a professional athlete and quality person in general society.
Currently Sportswisdom have launched the successful “The Coaches” book, and are in the process of producing a series of other interview-based books for the sports market – a key focus being on youth development. Hill commented “We have spent the last nine months interviewing Australia’s finest coaches and turning their personal stories and insights into the words of wisdom and in turn impart the collective wisdom of ‘elite athletes and coaches’ onto youth athletes, sports parents and youth coaches. The books, focus specifically on key personal and developmental insights which aim to fast track a young athlete to individual excellence not only in their sport but in life”.
These key principles fit in perfectly with the ethos of the Hurricanes Rugby League, of which Owner of the Hurricanes Rugby League, Dane Campbell said “it is extremely exciting to be able to partner with Sportswisdom. The concept of the educational series of books is terrific and will only further increase the prestige and quality of our development programs”.
In addition to providing books to the Hurricanes Academy, Sportswisdom will also provide an opportunity for the Hurricanes to market the range of Sportswisdom books through the www.hurricanesrugbyleague.com website, with a major part of the proceeds going directly back into the Academy program.
Hill Commented “I believe there is an abundance of untapped natural talent in such an exciting sporting country as Jamaica and to be part of fast tracking the development of the coaches and athletes especially in Rugby League is something we are extremely excited to be apart of”. For more information on Sportswisdom and books available to purchase visit www.sportswisdomrevealed.com.au
Dane Campbell (Left) with Scott Hill (Right)
The schedule has been finalised for this October’s Rugby League World Cup European Zone Qualifying fixtures, which will see one of the two remaining places filled for the 14 nation, 2013 global competition.
The winners of the four nation European Zone shoot out will join Scotland and Tonga in Group C of the main tournament, which will be staged in England and Wales as part of the ‘golden decade of sport.’
Each of Italy, Lebanon, Serbia and Russia will host a home game with the final round of matches taking place on the same afternoon in Belgrade, the host nation’s encounter with Russia also being for the Slavic Cup
Mohamed Habbous, Lebanon RL Federation President commented, “We are very excited to participate in the 2013World Cup qualifiers. This is a big year for Lebanese Rugby League and we hope to finally get that world cup spot that we’ve been so eagerly waiting for. After coming so close before we feel that we are ready to take the stage with the other elite RL nations.”
His views were echoed by Tiziano Franchini, President of Italian governing body FIRL who noted, “Italy is very happy to be part of a tournament that will qualify the winner for the World Cup 2013. It is a pleasure to be involved in such prestigious games and our build up has already started.”
He added, “FIRL is keen to use world cup qualification as a tool to develop and increase the knowledge of rugby league in Italy.” During the qualifiers, Italy will face Russia for the first time in international competition.
Lee Crooks, Serbian RL Federation Technical Director, knows how much the matches and the qualifier’s denouement in the county mean. “The European Zone Qualifiers are a huge incentive to the Serbian Rugby League community to show how much development has been undertaken by not only the massive volunteer personnel there but also the game in general.”
“It is a very tough qualifying group but we have the self belief that we can overcome the challenge ahead and show the rugby league world that the game in Serbia is getting stronger each year.” Rugby League European Federation General Manager Danny Kazandjian believes that the autumn series, with so much at stake, will showcase the sport throughout the continent.
“The RLEF is seeing notable progress at all levels throughout its Membership,” he said. “To compliment this, the European zone qualifiers present an opportunity for one of the competing nations to take their organisation onto the next level and, with no discernible favourite, I look forward to an exciting October.”
15 October – ITALY v RUSSIA, Padova
16 October – LEBANON v SERBIA, Tripoli
22 October – RUSSIA v LEBANON, Vereya
23 October – SERBIA v ITALY, Belgrade
29 October – SERBIA v RUSSIA [Slavic Cup] – ITALY v LEBANON, Belgrade
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