CONGRATULATIONS to France, although England can hold their heads high.
France battled back from 12-6 down to beat England 48-12 in the Pyrenees on Saturday and therefore retrieve the European Under 19 Championship title.
That’s a comfortable-enough victory in the end, isn’t it, although it has to be said that, by comparison to Scotland (who leaked 96 points against France) and Serbia (106 points in their case) England were pretty parsimonious.
Gary Hewer, the England coach, hit the nail on the head when he said: “We worked hard but France had some really strong, physical athletes across the park. They wore us down coming in wave after wave, but we made them work hard for their win, so I’m proud.”
The honours rest with France though, and their head coach Remi Casty, who is of course a true Rugby League legend, enthused: “We lost the last two finals and tried hard to put that right. We stuck to our plan, have a really good group and deserve to be European champions.”
And it was gratifying to hear Casty state: “The event has been incredible for all the teams, so well organised, wonderful facilities, quality food. Everything was good and we showed France can stage a wonderful tournament.”
That’s excellent (if only the World Cup had actually gone ahead in that wonderful country) as is the news that Greece will be in the Championship in 2028 after cruising to triumph in the Shield.
Their coach Jim Pizanias said, against the background of bouzouki music in their victorious dressing room: “It was great to see our six domestic players on the field in this match together, that was the best part about it.
“All the boys will go back to their schools and universities and let everyone know how great it is to play for Greece at Rugby League. Hopefully we can get a 19s competition going in Greece on the back of this.”
Amen to that. There are plenty of positives for all ten countries involved to take back home, not least Ireland, whose coach Dave Merrick was one of the best referees I ever came across (which is saying something) and who is these days on the staff at Hunslet.
He steered his side to a dramatic last-day win over Canada and reflected: “We planned to move their big men about but it didn’t come off so we had to revert to basic rugby. Sometimes you’ve got to be firm to be fair and that’s what the boys got at half-time.”
One oddity of the Championship is that league standings weren’t determined by points difference, but by results between those teams who finished level with each other.
For that reason Wales are third in the table, behind – rather than above – England, who prevailed 28-16 when the sides met. Similarly, Ukraine are below Scotland despite having a superior points difference.
It’s refreshing to deal with international fare, as the domestic scene is worrying.
Of Saturday’s seven BARLA National Cup ties, four were conceded. That’s disturbing, and it’s disconcerting that a meeting that I’m told by a reliable source had been arranged by the Rugby Football League to discuss the National Community Rugby League, which is in its first year after replacing the National Conference League, attracted (I’m informed) only one delegate. The RFL have failed to respond to my enquiry about this, so hard facts unfortunately remain hazy.
Meanwhile, Scotland meet Canada Ravens on Saturday at Hawick while, coincidentally, much of the youth and junior game in England is grinding to a halt, over the next few weeks, because of the school holidays. There seems to be more inaction than action these days.
Finally, I’m indebted to my old friend Gavin Willacy for providing me with a result from the National Conference South.
I had no scores at all from that competition nine days ago but Gav knew perfectly well that one match had taken place, because he was there.
The game in question was the fixture between North Herts Crusaders and Bristol All Golds which, Gav informed me, was won 40-22 by the All Golds.
I’m grateful to him for supplying me with the information although it’s yet another reminder that GameDay cannot be relied upon for, well, practically anything, a case in point being that the agency didn’t send results (or any other information) for last Saturday’s scheduled games in the North West, Yorkshire A and Yorkshire B Divisions of the National Conference.
That certainly wouldn’t have happened when amateur competitions were administered by volunteers who were happy to chase clubs for scores and then relay the information to such as yours truly.
These days it seems to be all about whether details are lodged correctly, or at all, in computer systems. “Take it or leave it” seems to be the stance.