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2021 Qualifiers

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
Good that the Cook Islands v South Africa game is finally confirmed and going ahead!
Best of luck to both teams but I'll be hoping for a SA win.

From a critical point of view, I feel there are better ways these final qualifiers could have been organised. 1 single game is not enough to decide a World Cup berth.

A better compromise would have been a 3-way-tournament.

The proper, thorough way would have been for 4th place in the Euro Finals to play off the USA for the 15th spot, and Cook Islands and South Africa to play home and away for the 16th and final position.
 

kbw

Bench
Messages
2,502
The proper, thorough way would have been for 4th place in the Euro Finals to play off the USA for the 15th spot, and Cook Islands and South Africa to play home and away for the 16th and final position.

Problem is money, the federations for those smaller nations don't have it and its expensive to bring players together, especially if you need to train etc. Its just not practical
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
Greece's defeat of Norway leaves them potentially 1 win from their first World Cup.

The final European qualifiers will be

Ireland v Italy v Spain

Scotland v Russia v Greece

with the top 2 from each group going through
 
Messages
11,361
https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/greece-defeat-norway-in-world-cup-qualifier/


Greece will face Scotland and Russia in the final stages of the 2021 World Cup European qualifiers after defeating Norway 56-26 in London.

The Greeks were also crowned European Championship C winners.

The gallant Norwegians, with centres Kristoffer Borsheim and Fredrik Nordtun outstanding, rallied in the second half at the New River Stadium, London, but had left themselves too much to do.

The spine of the Greek side proved too strong, with teenage South Sydney junior, hooker Peter Mamouzelos the star with four of their ten tries.

“Coming over here has been a wonderful experience,” he said.

“I’ve never been to Europe before. Going into camp in Greece with the team, I learned a lot about my culture and to come here and get the win was fantastic; it was a team effort.

“The whole family has got behind me, the support has been fantastic.”

In a blistering start, it took seven minutes for Greece to open the scoring when excellent Robert Tuliatu, the London Skolar on home territory, threw a dummy and fooled three defenders to cross; Jordan Meads, who directed play throughout, surprisingly skewing the conversion from in front of the posts, his sole miss.

With the Norwegians expending too much effort in defence, on the back of a penalty, Tuliatu and Meads combined to send Terry Constantinou over to score out wide in the 16th minute. Two minutes later, full back Constantinou broke clear and got the ball away to put paratrooper Theodoros Nianiakas into the open. The Aris Eagles backrower, who only started playing the sport six months ago, was unchallenged on his 35-metre run to the try line.

Nordtun was sin binned in the 26th minute for trying to delay the play after another Greek raid, and the blue and whites made the Vikings pay when Meads put centre Dimos Kartsonakis over in the corner, Meads landing the side line conversion to make it 20-0.

Mamouzelos dominated the end of the opening 40 with two tries in quick succession, the first capitalising on a Meads break and bamboozling defenders from close in, the second a superb solo effort from 70 metres, latching on to a Tuliatu midfield offload.

Norway, who stayed out on the field at half time, showed increasing resolve at the start of the second period to hint at a possible stunning comeback.

At the end of their best set, engineered by Kritsian Nordin-Skipnes and Brett Harvey, skipper Kristoffer Milligan dived over from dummy half on the last tackle, and with Joshua Skidmore-Hornby making an impact off the bench, a long pass set Casey Diggs free on the right; Nordtun curling over the conversion.

Mamouzelos completed a genuine hat-trick, diving over from dummy-half to give the Greeks breathing space, but Borsheim capitalised on a blind side play to superbly dummy his way over and, after Tuliatu had knocked on over the line, Nordtun took Simon Viljoen’s long pass to cross on the left to make it 38-20.

Norway lost possession from the restart and Greece made sure of the victory when Mamouzelos, playing at half-back, collected the ball from the scrum and fed Meads who put Constantinou over in the corner; Meads with the touchline goal.

A superb passage from the Greeks saw Mamouzelos begin a move from inside his own half. He linked up with Tuliatu who sent Meads into the clear and Mamouzelos backed up to score between the posts; Meads’ goal bringing up the Hellenic half century.

Mamouzelos then turned provider, racing down the side line before stepping inside Stephen Mwinkar. The Norwegian custodian managed to hold on to him, but the Souths tyro was able to get the ball away for Nianiakas to cross for his second try.

Norway were rewarded for their perseverance, and had the consolation of winning the second half, when they spread the ball wide and released former athlete Diggs, who sprinted 60 metres for a score to delight their fans and numerous dignitaries.

Greece: Constantinou; Nake, Katsidonis, Kartsonakis, Kourkakis; Bosmas, Meads; Bastas, Mamouzelos, Rousoglou, Nianiakas, Koutsimpogiorgas, Tuliatu. Subs: Dardamanis, Tsattalios, Dimakas, Tsiakos.

Tries: Tuliatu (7), Constantinou (15, 68), Nianiakas (17, 73) Kartsonakis (26), Mamouzelos (35, 38, 53, 71) Goals: Meads 7/8, Bastas 1/1, Mamouzelos 0/1

Norway: Mwikar; Diggs, Borsheim, Nordtun, Kalvik; Cummins, Viljoen; Mullins, Milligan, McIntyre, Holte, Nordin-Skipnes, Harvey. Subs: Mellor, Stalsberg, Zuniga, Skidmore-Hornby.

Tries: Milligan (42), Diggs (46, 78), Borsheim (59), Nordtun (66) Goals: Nordtun 2/4, Cummins 1/1
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
That Souths hooker shows what a big influence heritage players still have, even with a low limit.

What's the limit at the next stage? The higher they go, the more professional level players Greece will need to stay in the hunt. World Cup with a handful they would get hidings even from the worst current teams.
 

langpark

First Grade
Messages
5,867
That was some of the best coverage I've ever seen (for this level). Multiple camera angles, commentary, replays, pre-match, halftime and post-match interviews, it had everything!

 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
The streaming of WCQ games has been so far a big improvement on 4 years ago.

I think i've watched all of them so far and despite being obviously low budget compared to the Fox sports productions we're used to, they are of good quality.
Maybe next time we'll have an actual media broadcast!
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
What's a realistic team Cook Islands can put on the park?
Does anyone know if there are heritage rules in play here?

NZ play Tonga the next day.

Their last team in 2017 contained current first graders:
Nicoll-Klokstad
Marsters
Glenn
Niukore

Takairangi you would think likely in place of Marsters who will probably play for NZ.
Rapana will play for NZ and Napa is likely to be in Origin.
A number of former second graders, fringe first graders, and former first graders in Australia and England are also possible selections.

I don't know of any NRL players that will represent South Africa, and they have less 2nd division players than Cooks.

Some eligible are
Shane Gillham (Tweed Heads Seagulls),
Mitchell Frei (Souths Logan),
Brendan Frei (Norths Devils ),
Jackson Frei (Warriors NSW Cup),
Kamren Cryer (Blacktown Workers ),
Coby Thomas (Roosters Jersey Flegg)
 

titoelcolombiano

First Grade
Messages
5,277
I can't believe that at the very least one of either Greece or Russia will be at the world cup that is pretty huge when you consider that Jamaica will also be there. The world cup is definately spreading its wings.

You would think that there are a fair few Greek heritage players floating around in Australia, they could be quite entertaining and really kick-start the game in Greece.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
Did anyone catch Vossy's The Fan last night? Cool little segment on the Russia 2000 WC campaign.

Apparently it was backed by the mob and they paid any Aussies with heritage wads of cash to have a run

I'd love to see them make a return to the big stage
 
Messages
11,361
Did anyone catch Vossy's The Fan last night? Cool little segment on the Russia 2000 WC campaign.

Apparently it was backed by the mob and they paid any Aussies with heritage wads of cash to have a run

I'd love to see them make a return to the big stage
That's cool... time to make a movie
 

Irish-bulldog

Juniors
Messages
785
Russia has such huge potential in the late 90’s, you would think league would be built for him hard bastards lol. Wonder if it will finally take off. Either Greece or Russia would be great, it’s a shame Spain will struggle because they are making real progress.
 

ParraEelsNRL

Referee
Messages
27,694
Greece or Spain would be wonderful, Russia has too much politics involved and I can't ever see it going anywhere after their promising start in the 90's. Teams jumping from one code to the other because of any disagreement or who has the money year to year. If they like both codes, have both codes as the one club, this jumping back and forth is crazy and they'll never get anywhere.
 

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