Spain Rugby League (Merged threads)

[fighting irish]

Keep it coming bbfaz all news welcome, (good news especially).

[bbfaz]

I hate starting new threads so I'll put it here. 

 

So, the AERL selected Torredonjimeno, 20km from Jaén, for the upcoming RLWC qualifier with Ireland. It's roughly the size of Clitheroe. However, the state of the pitch is making them question whether they'll be able to play this game. My question would be why were they playing a game in a backwater of a backwater to begin with? 

[Chamey]

On 02/04/2019 at 21:43, bbfaz said:

They've moved fast in Valencia, getting five teams together who are ready to play now.  Tigres d'Torrent, Xativa Roosters, Valencian Warriors, Ontinyent and newcomer Tavernes will start a new season on the weekend of the 13th/14th April.

Other leagues aren't as ready to go it would seem and there's no positive news out of Madrid.

Bit worrying that the URL is down.

[bbfaz]

2 hours ago, Chamey said:

Bit worrying that the URL is down.

Red flags galore tbh. 

[2blackrooks]

Match now moved to Xativa about 40 miles south of Valencia. 

[bbfaz]

 

Game has been moved to an athletics stadium in Xativa, which is home of the Xativa Roosters.

Over on the AERL Facebook page, I said it made no sense to hold it near Jaen to begin with.   Torredonjimeno is a small, inconsequential town near one of the smaller, inconsequential provincial capitals.  However, and maybe this is coincidence, the regional delegate for Jaen is the president of Asociación de Rugby League de Andalucía.  As I said back in May 2017, ARLA split off from the "national" (read Valencian) setup to get their own thing going and there hasn't been a game played in Andalusia in over 2 years.  Things have stalled, still no fixtures announced.

Maybe I'm seeing things that aren't there but it seems to me that they found this stadium and convinced the national committee that this would help them launch and reboot ARLA.  This wouldn't be such a concern if Custodians Madrid hadn't complained that they weren't allowed to host an international game, eventhough they were trying to do exactly the same thing 18 months ago.

I think we're at a point where you can say there's an international coach and players who'd play for the team but, for all intents and purposes, the game is gone in Spain.

[DoubleD]

1 hour ago, bbfaz said:

 

Game has been moved to an athletics stadium in Xativa, which is home of the Xativa Roosters.

Over on the AERL Facebook page, I said it made no sense to hold it near Jaen to begin with.   Torredonjimeno is a small, inconsequential town near one of the smaller, inconsequential provincial capitals.  However, and maybe this is coincidence, the regional delegate for Jaen is the president of Asociación de Rugby League de Andalucía.  As I said back in May 2017, ARLA split off from the "national" (read Valencian) setup to get their own thing going and there hasn't been a game played in Andalusia in over 2 years.  Things have stalled, still no fixtures announced.

Maybe I'm seeing things that aren't there but it seems to me that they found this stadium and convinced the national committee that this would help them launch and reboot ARLA.  This wouldn't be such a concern if Custodians Madrid hadn't complained that they weren't allowed to host an international game, eventhough they were trying to do exactly the same thing 18 months ago.

I think we're at a point where you can say there's an international coach and players who'd play for the team but, for all intents and purposes, the game is gone in Spain.

Hard to disagree with this, it’s not in a good place 

[Nate90]

Off topic and I should really do my research but what are the participation numbers of all the ex pat British in Spain ?

[bbfaz]

Not off topic, Nate.  I doubt those numbers exist.  There are enclaves of Britishness across Spain.  In Madrid, they have FC Britanico and Madrid Barbarians, which are the English-speaking football and rugby clubs.  You'd expect some expat action down on the coasts and but I think it's a coincidence that the two biggest autonomous communities for Brits are the same for Rugby League.

[2blackrooks]

Exciting news coming out of Spain, further Super league development match + potential new Spanish team which could enter the 3rd tier of British RL

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/valencia-set-stage-grand-final-20721898