By STEPHEN IBBETSON
WHEN Greece play in front of a packed Bramall Lane this Saturday, it will be quite the contrast from playing in front of nobody in the Athens mountains.
But that’s the remarkable journey that England’s final group opponents have been on to make it this far.
Only a few months ago was Rugby League’s governing body in Greece recognised by the government; before then the sport had to be played in secret.
Their qualification for the World Cup was a long one, featuring three stages. They beat Ukraine in Kharkiv and Malta at home to reach a final in which they defeated Norway at the New River Stadium in London, just to qualify for the European play-offs.
There they lost to Scotland but won 82-6 in Belgrade to earn a first ever World Cup appearance.
But that only begins to tell the story; the Malta fixture was the most bizarre of all as the game had to be played in a secret location towards the mountains.
It has all been worth it to put Greece on the Rugby League map, and they won hearts with their performance against France in their first match of the tournament last Monday and a respectable 34-12 defeat in Doncaster.
They followed that up with a clash against Samoa yesterday (Sunday) at the same ground and are now looking ahead to facing the host nation in Sheffield on Saturday (October 29, kick-off 2.30pm).
After making their World Cup bow against France, Steve Georgallis – who has been head coach since their very first match in 2003, and is also assistant coach at North Queensland Cowboys – summed up their campaign.
“We’re playing a professional team, and there’s probably only four or five players in our team that train professionally,” he said.
“The rest do it as a second job and some don’t even do it as a job and get paid. I can’t believe the effort they put in.
“There are a few players from the (Greek) domestic comp who play on average six games a year, and they’re playing in a World Cup. It’s amazing.
“That try at the end (Nick Mougios scored a try-of-the-tournament contender) summed up how much it means to them to play for Greece and how much it’s going to mean to Greece itself to have Rugby League as part of its sporting culture now.
“Hopefully it does kick off there, and I think it will.”
Their other try-scorer against France has his own brilliant story. Cronulla Sharks winger Siteni Taukamo only turned 18 – the minimum age required to play in the World Cup – a week earlier.
“He was at the point where we thought we couldn’t take him because you have to be 18 to play in a World Cup,” explained Georgallis.
“Then we worked out that he was going to turn 18 in the week we played our first game.
“The second reason why (he was called up late to the squad) was because he was in his HSC (exam) year, so he had to toss up whether he wanted to do his HSC or come and play for Greece. He wanted to come and play for Greece.”
Captain Jordan Meads is a former Gateshead Thunder halfback, born in Wellington and representing his grandparents’ heritage in representing Greece, and now playing for Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
“It’s the best thing in the world,” said Meads of being involved in the World Cup, at great personal cost.
“I work in insurance, so to come up against full-time professionals and to do it with my brothers, we’ve probably paid 50 grand each over the last few years to qualify. This is the cherry on top.”
