League Express

Italy Rugby League leads major development activity

The Italian segment of the joint RLEF-EU Leadership Devolution Project has concluded after a packed four days of activity in Piacenza.
Three other nations – Ireland, Greece and Hungary – joined the hosts to receive tutor training and two level one courses in match officiating and coaching.
Greece’s Aris-Konstantinos Dardamanis said: “The match officials course was very well organized and taught me a lot in a very short time,” while his Hungarian counterpart Balint Mezes enthused: “The course was a good experience; as a young  rugby league nation we now have the tools to develop rugby league back home.  We now go back with the confidence that we can train our own match officials.”
Ireland sent head match official Jason Craughwell to Italy in support of FIRL match officials chief Guido Bonnatti and RLEF match official development squad members Danny McNeice from England and Serbia’s Radoslav Novakovic.
“We had a great bunch of people with different experiences in rugby league,” said Craughwell. “But all of them had one thing in common which was they wanted to develop and improve as match officials.”
On the coaching side, Italy’s Chris De Meyer joined the programme supporting 2013 RLEF course graduate Tiziano Franchini.
“It was great to see the different cultures and input from everyone involved,” Franchini commented. “Technically I have improved my knowledge and understanding of what is needed when coaching coaches.  This opportunity will allow FIRL to continue the progress we have made over the last three years.  These are exciting times!”
Former GB international Des Foy will play a leading role in RL Ireland’s new plan to re-focus on the domestic game.
“It was great to see the newer nations really embrace rugby league and its values,” the ex-Widnes, Oldham and Huddersfield player - who toured down under in 1984 - noted. “This course has given us the chance to speak about our local situations and to help each other develop into strong rugby league nations.”
Hungary’s coach tutor-candidates will next lead a Level 1 coaching course on home soil, while Greece will undertake match official activity there in November.
The delegates for the match officials seminar were: Danny McNeice, Rale Novakovic (RLEF), Jason Craughwell (RLI), Aris-Konstantinos Dardamanis,  George Stilianos, Nikolaos Kostakis (HFRL), Jeno Juhasz, Zsolt Lukacs (HRLF),  Guido Bonnatti and Ciprian Gajulete (FIRL).
The delegates for the coaching seminar were: Martin Crick (RLEF), Michael Aughey, Desmond Foy (RLI), Anastasios Pantazidis, Dimitrios Minadakis, Matthew-Alan Ashill (HFRL), Balint Mezes, Katalin Huszti, Istvan Toth, Gyula Herpai (HRLF), Chris DeMeyer, Kelly Rolleston and Tiziano Franchini (FIRL).

Rugby League receives highest government classification in Ukraine

Rugby league now has: “All the elements to make a massive leap forward in Ukraine,” according to Ukrainian Rugby League Federation (UFRL) president Artur Martyrosyan.
The positive noises are the result of the sport’s inclusion in the ‘Unified Sports Classification’ list controlled by the ministry of sport, and follow January’s permission for rugby league to form part of the government sport school curriculum.  
“It’s a very significant success for rugby league,” continued Martyrosyan. “We now have every element of a major national sport and we can expect a big leap in participation throughout the country.”
“This is one of the most important things that has happened to the UFRL: we received official recognition in 2012, created and lodged a study programme in 2013 and now have the classification.”
It means that players and coaches will be recognised for their achievements with five distinctions that define their aptitude and experience which are also linked to pay-scales in the sports industry, making involvement in rugby league a more attractive proposition.
The UFRL will now begin a project to invite potential leaders from ten target cities - Kiev, Lviv, Rivne, Khmel`nyc`kyy, Uzhgorod, Irpin, Dnipropetrovs`k, Odessa, Mikolaiv and Dneip  - to a series of education seminars in Kharkov.
They will deliver match official and coach education programmes and begin local development at junior and senior level.
The next phase of the project will be for the current second division clubs to become part of an expanded first division while the new cities form either regional competitions or a national second division.
At the end of 2014 the UFRL, which received government funding last year for the first time, will submit its annual dossier to the sports ministry in a bid to increase its funding in line with its expanded operations and, crucially, its official status.
Next week sees the recommencement of the Ukrainian championship with Crimean clubs Simferopol and Sevastopol travelling to Krivoy Rog.

Italy, under coach Paul Broadbent, have named a 39-man train-on squad for their opening game in European Championship B against Ukraine, on 5th July in Gemona.

It is the first time that rugby league has been taken to the area and FIRL are hoping to put on a good show for the locals in the region.

The squad, principally made up of domestic-based players, includes full back Fabrizio Ciaurro - the Euro Shield player of the tournament last year - and back rower Gioele Celerino, who both played against England in last autumn’s RLWC warm up game, dramatically won by the Italians, along with Warrington Wolves youngster James Saltonstall.

Assistant coach Kelly Rolleston said: “This year’s European Championship gives us a chance to continue the good work done here over the last few years.”  

“We expect a very competitive tournament with newcomers Ukraine showing some excellent form in their opening matches with Russia and Serbia.  Our aim is to blood more young players into our squad and with some new U18 activity we hope to bring our best young players up to an international standard.”

This weekend sees the start of the 2014 Serie A competition with four games taking place, alongside the launch pf the U18s fixtures.

In addition, FIRL are also running Level 1 coaching and match officials courses in Piacenza.

ITALY TRAIN-ON SQUAD


Simone Boscolo, Gialuca Ferro, Alden Filipovic, Edoardo Paluello, Giacomo Simioni (Arieti Este), Ray Nasso,  Romain Pavoni (Avignon XIII), Remi Fontana (Carpentras), Nicola Facco,  Nicola Reffo (Grifons Padova), Christophe Calegari  (Lezignan Corbieres), Pierangelo Ceretti, Cosimo Corvino, Sebastian Gurra, Thomas Piscitelli,  (Lions Brescia), Gioele Celerino, Chris De Meyer, Gert Peens, Riccardo Scandurra, (NW Roosters), Mauro Pettenello (Padova 555), Jonathon Marcinczak (Racing Club Albi), Joel Miranda (Realmont), Chris Vitalini (South Wales Scorpions), Fabrizio Ciaurro, Michele Verardi (Tirreno Sharks), Matthew Bradley (University of Gloucestershire All Golds), James Saltonstall (Warrington Wolves), Nourou Bance, Ivan Barani, Fabio Berzieri, Riccardo Dodi, Giovanni Franchi, Octavian Ilinca, Drake Muyodi, Fabio Nannini, Daniel Stead, (XIII del Ducato), Idammou El Medhi, Luca Cerza, Andrea Sola (XIII della Ghirandina)

This evening Midlands Lionhearts take on Moscow City XIII at the Red Arrow Stadium in the first match of a two game tour.

On Sunday, in Vereya, they face a Russia Select and the hosts are very much looking forward to the encounters.

“Our players do not have too many games of that kind,” said Russia coach Vadim Fedchuk. “The matches will give us an opportunity to see some of our young players against strong counterparts. I hope they will show what we need to improve in our coming game versus Serbia in European Championship B.”

The Lionhearts are coached by Patrick Wilson (Northampton Demons) and Dean Thompson (Coventry Dragons) with the tour led by Doncaster assistant coach Chris Spurr.

“We had a terrific warm-up match recently against Midlands Premier champions Telford Raiders," said Doughty. “The guys mix really well as a team and push each other hard in training, so there is no lack of confidence.”

“Ten teams are represented, it’s a terrific experience out here and we are all now looking forward to the matches and putting on a good show for the region.”

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