Today we are hosting an entry written by Bill Longhurst, Deputy Head of Missionin the British Embassy in Belgrade.
The European Rugby league championships were held last week in Belgrade and I was invited to attend the matches and present the winners with their trophies: England, France and Wales contested the Championship itself, and Serbia, Scotland and a mixed team called European Celts (made up of Irish, Czechs, Russians and some others) fought over the European shield for emerging Rugby League countries.
All the matches were held in scorching weather conditions (by UK standards) at the small sports stadium on “Ada Ciganlija”, an island in the Sava river which is covered in lakes, cycle tracks, sports fields and clubs/ restaurants. Anyone expecting a leisurely kick-around by school youngsters would have been quite surprised. The average size of the players looked pretty intimidating to me, as did the ferocity and sheer physicality of the tackling.
The speed, skill and energy levels, especially with the temperature in the high 30s, were very impressive – not surprising considering that several of the players from the top three countries have already been signed up by professional clubs at home.
England (with the current England senior team coach and former international Tony Smith in charge) met France in the final on Saturday after both teams had defeated the Welsh in hard-fought matches earlier in the week.
What looked like it was heading for a comfortable victory for England mid way through the second half, suddenly turned more tense as the French hit back with a converted try. Finally, though, the English kicked a penalty goal to restore a two-score lead of 8 points and held on to clinch the match 22-14.
In the European shield final match between Scotland and Serbia, it was a similar story with Scotland, complete with piper accompaniment from the touchline throughout the match, controlling the game but then having to survive a late fight-back by the Serbs. In the end, Scotland held on to win 26-16 and took the Shield.
All in all, a good week for British teams in Serbia, but just as good a week for the development of Rugby League outside its current heartlands. Serbia, Russia and Czech Republic are all target countries for this and judging by the Serbian crowd’s enthusiastic reaction, they are on to a winner. Credit goes to the Serbian Rugby League’s tireless organiser, Jovan Vujosevic for making the tournament happen.
Posted at 14:19 24 August 2009 by Stephen Wordsworth | Comments[0]
- Share this with:
-
-
-
-
-