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India in 2018 ENWC

StadiumXIII

Juniors
Messages
176
India set to make their international debut at Emerging Nations World Championship
26 Dec 2017

The southern Asian nation of India is the latest team to commit to the upcoming Emerging Nations World Championship scheduled for Western Sydney in October / November 2018.

The Rugby League Federation of India representative side is set to join fellow Asian sides, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines and Japan at the third iteration of the Emerging Nations tournament following an announcement earlier this week by the organisation.

The team, will be predominantly made up of players from the Rugby League Federation of India (RLFI) competitions which are based out of West coast state of Kerala.

Formed in late 2015, the RLFI has predominantly been focused on developing the code at the U15s – U17s with the organisation successfully hosting a series of National Championships a various age groups this year and a series of other irregular matches and beach tournaments.

Teams for these tournaments have come from the regional centres of Kozhikode, Ernakulam, Koyilandy, Ponnani, Guruvayur, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

Despite the focus of the RLFI being predominantly on age based teams, the organisation aims to establish an open age competition and views the opportunity to take part in the Emerging Nations World Championship as a key step in helping the code both retain and attract new players.

Despite multiple attempts to establish the code in India over the past decade, the nation has never played an international Rugby League match.

The Emerging Nations World Championship is set to feature at least sixteen Tier Two / Three Rugby League nations with additional participants set to be announced in 2018.

Currently thirteen national representative teams have committed to the tournament, including the likes of Canada, Malta, Hungary and Latvia.

http://www.asiapacificrl.com/2017/1...twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter

Good to have a nation like India involved in this! Hopefully a few more nations can be confirmed. I'd hope for South Africa, would be good if they can somehow get a Chinese representative but we are close enough in Hong Kong!
 

DlEHARD

Juniors
Messages
823
Big news, I hope for a successful debut for them.

Also, I remember seeing many Indian-Fijians at the Semi against the Kangaroos at Lang Park. Heaps and they were kitted up too, flags, facepaint.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
Awesome. Surprise entry.
Still a few of the expected teams not confirmed yet - Serbia, Jamaica, South Africa most notably.
 

latingringo101

Juniors
Messages
585
Fantastic news! Glad India is sending a team! I wonder if they'll link up with the Ethnic RL guys from NZ and ask a few of those guys to play.
 

titoelcolombiano

First Grade
Messages
5,322
Lots of Indians in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and England so they could probably have a pretty handy heratige side if they got the game up and going. Hopefully this would then translate to the community back home like in Lebanon's case.
 

deluded pom?

Coach
Messages
10,897
Lots of Indians in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and England so they could probably have a pretty handy heratige side if they got the game up and going. Hopefully this would then translate to the community back home like in Lebanon's case.
The Asian communities in the U.K. rarely seem to bother with rugby league. There has been the odd player over the years but not very many. They prefer cricket, not surprisingly .
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
The Asian communities in the U.K. rarely seem to bother with rugby league. There has been the odd player over the years but not very many. They prefer cricket, not surprisingly .

This is largely the case here too. A lot of fans but not many players. Could probably count on 1 hand the amount of Indian or Chinese players i've come across in close to 20 years of playing in Sydney.
The exception is in touch and tag comps.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
You trust them not to be snakey cnuts?

Doesn't really matter, whats the worst they can do? Jump back again? Nothing of value lost.

You want to wage war on WRL, poach the few misguided countries they have, leaving some whinging Greeks and Italians with their geniused website and 1 game a year. Banning them only gives them legitimacy.
 

Coastbloke

Bench
Messages
4,051
Is NZ allowed to enter this thing?

This.

If NZ entered and literally played purely domestics without NRL, NYC or NSW Cup and PNG did the same (no Hunters) PNG would kill them..

Yet NZ are still 2-3 in the rankings and PNG and Fiji still struggling. This why the Pacific Islands are so damn important to the game..
 

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