This week there has been lots of great news from around the world with the development of the sport. in Germany there is an U16 tournament while in North America teams are gearing up for the USARL grand final and Colonial Cup. Also some news out of the Ukraine.
Rugby League Deutschland will host the first European Youth Rugby League Festival this weekend, with the Under 16 sides of Scotland, Russia and Serbia travelling to Baden-Württemberg in the south of the country for the first round of the four-match event.
Germany will be fielding a youth representative side for the first time with players drawn from Heidelberg, Callbach and Hochspeyer. They face Scotland in their opening tie in Hochspyer on Friday 19th August, kick off 5pm, while Russia play Serbia beforehand at 3pm.
Serbian coach Slavisa Zekic is in confident mood following a thorough preparation at the Serbian Football Federation’s five-star facility outside Belgrade. “After five gruelling days in excellent conditions the young Serbian team is well prepared,” he said. “We played against the Russians almost a year ago and lost. Now we hope to do much better because we have played a number of home games in the past year, gaining us valuable experience.”
Russia has put a similar amount of effort into its preparation for the festival with a five-day training camp in Vereya, south of Moscow and RARLC director Sergei Kashutin defiantly stated, “We know the Serbians but we are not in the mood to let them through to the final.”
Former Castleford and Scotland full back Jason Flowers leads his charges for the first time in a bid to start a successful international coaching career with the SRL. Flowers, who won three caps for Scotland including playing in the 2000 World Cup against New Zealand Maoris and Samoa, takes charge of products of the inaugural Scotland player development centre, which was launched earlier this year. Their squad is drawn from nine clubs ranging from Aberdeen to Gateshead.
The culmination of the tournament is on Sunday in Heidelberg when the winners of the first matches play off for the title and the losers battle for the third and fourth place rankings.
Under 16s Squads
GERMANY
Schultz Kevin (Callbach Raccoons); Bökes Ali Sürer, Dörzbacher Marco, Frohmüller Kevin, Genthner Thomas, Greipel Loris, Günal Hakan, Hoffmann Jonas, Jansen Kai, Klein Kevin, Klein Tillmann, Krumwitz Marcel, Marin Luis, Mirrell Sahli, Polte Wolfgang, Rambow Florian, Rettwitz Paul, Schäfer Simon, Selinger Oliver, Spies Vincent, Van Skywark Leif, Von Tresckow Adrian, Strang Oliver (Heidelberg); Kratz Jonas, Scherrer Sebastian (Hochspeyer Sharks)
RUSSIA
Golubev Mikhail, Ismailov Timur, Kalimulin Ruslan, Kanevskiy Oleg, Kashirskiy Artem, Kucherenko Vladislav, Nagornyy Pavel, Syzranov Dmitriy (RLC NARA); Kuklin Anton, Sachkov Yury, Belov Vladislav (RLC Nevskaya Zastava); Schidaniya Roma, Shaydurov Egor, Volkov Andrey (RLC Treshers); Lazer Denis, Loginov Andrei, Safronov Roman, Sidelnikov Mikhail (RLC Vеrеyа)
SCOTLAND
Ewan Grindley, Gavin Reed, Mitchell Scott, Carwyn Walker (Aberdeen Spartans); George Watt (Deeside); Gary Doherty, Jason Haggarty, Fraser Mctaggart, Stephen Sleery (Easterhouse Panthers); Gregor Ramsay, Calum Rennie, Craig Reid (Falkirk Romans); Connor Edwards, Andrew Pollock (Fife); Sinclair Matthews (Gateshead); Daniel Godfrey, Cameron Hughes (Moray Titans); Ryan Mckeown, Kristofer Walker (Victoria Knights); Craig Allan (Wallsend Eagles)
SERBIA
Vasilije Jovanovic, Aleksandar Karimanovic, Luka Lazarevic, Luka Milatovic, Masan Milatovic, Uros Radulovic, Nikola Stosic, Nikola Vlahovic, Stefan Zecevic (Dorcol); Vojin Miletic (Radnicki Nova Pazova); Stefan Jovanovic, Lazar Micic, Andrej Mora, Marko Pavkovic, Miodrag Tomic (Red Star Belgrade); Nemanja Pesic, Igor Petrovski, Dusan Vasilijevic (Smederevo); Veton Barjaktari (Stari Grad)
Phase 2 of the RLEF’s Technical Strategy in the Central Europe region has been completed. As a result, the national governing bodies for Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Malta and Serbia now have trained and qualified coach tutors and greater capacity to produce and develop their own personnel.
The course, funded by the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sports and held at the state of the art Serbian Football Federation Sports Centre, was led by RLEF Coaching Manager Martin Crick and followed on from the launch seminar in London in March, which was attended by 48 coach-tutor candidates from 19 different nations.
Phase 2 of the strategy sees the candidates devolve into their own RLEF regions to receive more specialised coaching and tutorial work while the final phase will see each team of tutors delivering a national Level 1 Coaching Course to local candidates.
Dirk Frase, who came from Germany, commented, “We had a really great course. We improved our knowledge and we do believe that we are ready to transfer we have gained to other rugby league coaches in our countries.”
Martin Crick, who was assisted by Stuart Wilkinson, noted, “I am very pleased with the work, dedication, will, desire and enthusiasm of all the delegates. Each day they made considerable progress and demonstrated a significant level of knowledge. Courses like this will push forward the development of rugby league in Europe.”
“It has been an inspiring four days, I have never worked in such a marvellous environment.”
The ultra-modern facility in Stara Pazova boasts five football fields set among every conceivable amenity for the professional athlete.
Phase 2 of the MENA Region Coaching project commences in Beirut on 6th September while dates are still being finalised in the Atlantic Region with Spanish Town’s GC Foster College in Jamaica and the Eastern Europe base, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Details of the Western Europe base will be revealed in due course.
QUALIFIED RLEF CENTRAL EUROPE COACH TUTORS.
David Lahr, Andrew Mulhall (CZRLA); Tiziano Franchini, Kelly Rolleston (FIRL); Clifford DeBattista, Anthony Micallef (MRL); Dirk Frase, Uwe Jansen, Marcus Leimert (RLD); Dragan Radlovic, Slavisa Zekic, Lazar Zivkovic (SRLF)
The Canada Wolverines have made five changes to the team that defeated Jamaica in the Caribbean Cup for their Colonial Cup clash with USA Tomahawks next weeked.
They see the return of 2010 Atlantic Cup members Cam Grace and Geoff Bylund, while Graham Dobbs, Matt Pettie and Mike Reid will be making their debuts. Harlequins teenager Louis Robinson, who starred against Jamaica, retains his place.
Canada Coach Jamie Lester commented, “Cam has just returned from a season in Australia and should add some starch to our pack and Geoff will relish in his return to the team. Our three debutants have impressed in the domestic season and at training and deserve their spot in the team. We are all looking forward to matching ourselves against a side preparing for the World Cup Qualifiers.”
The Wolverines face the Tomahawks in Philadelphia on August 27th before the return fixture at Fletchers Field, Ontario on September 17th.
Canada Wolverines
1. Robin Legault, Toronto City Saints
2. Tony Felix, York Region Reds
3. Geoff Bylund, Toronto City Saints
4. Christian Miller, Scarborough Centurions
5. Matt Pettie, Niagara Bobcats
6. Jamie Lester, Toronto City Saints
7. Matt Wyles, Scarborough Centurions
8. Steve Conlon, Toronto City Saints
9. Chris Diamond, Niagara Bobcats
10. Louis Robinson, Harlequins RL
11. Cam Grace, Noosa Pirates
12. Henry Miers, York Region Reds
13. Tyler Allen, Scarborough Centurions
14. Graham Dobbs, Scarborough Centurions
15. Dale Fitzgerald, York Region Reds
16. Mike Reid, Niagara Bobcats
17. Steve Lamb, Niagara Bobcats
18th man: John Felix
At the same time as preparing for the internationals, Canada Rugby League would like to hear from any overseas rugby league players that are Canadian born or have parents or grandparents that are to follow in Louis Robinson’s footsteps.
In last year’s Atlantic Cup, Canada used Ben White and Marc Hanke from the AMNRL as their sole non domestic players to help in their pursuit of international success. This year, Canada witnessed exactly what kind of talent can
The most notable overseas player with Canadian heritage is former Wakefield star and current Keighley Cougars player/coach Jason Demetriou who previously played for Canada in the 2000 Emerging Nations World Cup, and is said to be interested to don the Wolverines jersey.
CRL Chairman Eric Perez explained, “We have spoken to Jason about his desire to play for the Wolverines, and I am confident that we will see him on Canadian soil sometime in the near future.”
Lester, who is also the nation’s Technical Director, added, “In the future, when we are planning for the 2017 World Cup, we are going to need players with some professional experience but I would like to think that Canada will always have a team with at least fifty percent of our players domestically based”.
If you are playing rugby league outside of Canada and have Canadian eligibility please contact jamiel@canadarugbyleague.com with a brief profile of your experience.
The Ukrainian rugby league season, which is about to enter its representative phase, has been one of the busiest – and most visible – to date according to UFRL officials. That is due in large part to the airing of the Engage Super League on Ukrainian television, with the programme also covering domestic activity.
The increased awareness has led in turn to UFRL officials Gennady Veprik, Anton Boyko and vice president Artur Martyrosyan meeting municipal officials in Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Donestsk, Krivoy Rog, Sevastapol, Smferepol, Feodosia, Odessa and Kharkov about further spreading the sport across the country.
One of the main results of those meetings was that nine times Ukrainian rugby union champions “Argo” joined the league ranks, with a total of seven clubs competing in a series of 9s events.
The UFRL has also begun introducing rugby league at youth level, with eight teams of U14 and U16s in Donetsk playing for the first time.
“Our season is still ‘full steam ahead’,” said Martyrosyan. “Our youth and junior championships aren’t finished yet and the national team will participate in two matches.”
He continued, “On top of the increased activity and interest in rugby league, the UFRL is in position to apply for government recognition with the Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sport, a move it hopes will pave the way for Membership of the RLEF.”
I can confirm that the Colonial Cup in Philadelphia will be played at the Charles Martin Memorial Stadium. This is the same venue as the Donnybrook Cup and the kick off time will be at 3 pm. I guess this is to compete with the USARL Grand Final who have had their Finals time established for over a month now. The USARL Grand Final is on at the same time at the Garthwaite Stadium in Philadelphia. I will try to get to both … somehow.
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