Great news re Russia and the US

[MistyBee9-11]

Three wonderful bits of news in the SMH today.

1. Russia has been given full test status and will become the 6th nation on the Intrenatoinal Rugby League board (joining Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France and Papua New Guinea)
2. Each week and NRL game will be shown in prime time on Foxtel in the USA.
3. The NRL clubs have agreed to foster the game in the Pacific

The article is below: A Kangaroo tour ending with a Test in Russia? It may not be all that far down the track after the fledgling rugby league nation was granted full member status of the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) yesterday. The Russians' encouraging performance at the World Sevens - where they failed to win a game but played some sparkling football - was the catalyst for its admission to the RLIF. And RLIF chairman Colin Love, who is also the Australian Rugby League chairman, admitted a Kangaroo tour involving Russia may not be all that far-fetched. "It's a possibility," Love said. "We were very impressed with the standard of play and what they have achieved. It might be a little time away (before they play Australia), but they're playing in a European Cup over there.<br clear=all>&lt;ISLANDAD> >
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[MistyBee9-11]

(for f**ks sake can someone get an edit function here PLEASE???) Try again...... A Kangaroo tour ending with a Test in Russia? It may not be all that far down the track after the fledgling rugby league nation was granted full member status of the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) yesterday. The Russians' encouraging performance at the World Sevens - where they failed to win a game but played some sparkling football - was the catalyst for its admission to the RLIF. And RLIF chairman Colin Love, who is also the Australian Rugby League chairman, admitted a Kangaroo tour involving Russia may not be all that far-fetched. "It's a possibility," Love said. "We were very impressed with the standard of play and what they have achieved. It might be a little time away (before they play Australia), but they're playing in a European Cup over there.<br clear=all>&lt;ISLANDAD> >
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[Willow]

(for f**ks sake can someone get an edit function here PLEASE???)

The only think you can do with those articles is to feed them through notepad first and then re-paste them in the send box. Sometimes you have to apply a few spaces but it works ok.

But I do agree that Nine Msn should introduce an edit fuction.

 

[MistyBee9-11]

Thanks for that Willow - and sory for the swearing - just got frustrated with it! Still, I thnik it's a red letter day for Rugby League. Russia is a HUGE nation - and ni the flick of a pen I think the League world has doubled the populations of their representative countries. Imagine a test in November in Moscow! BBRRRRRRR

 

[Willow]

Well done Russia.

I'm not sure of the background but Rugby Leagueseems to havetaken off in Russia. Crowds of 30,000 and the Russian team competing well in the European competition... and now they are a member of the club internationally.

I normally ignore stories of huge crowds in far off lands - tend to leave the story-telling to Rugby Union protagonists... but it does look as if we are hearing of some consistency from our comrades in Moscow.

Itwas only last yearthat we had talesof RU getting crowds of 30,000 so whats happened sinced? Are RU still getting the crowds they boasted last year or have Russians Unionists suddenly discovered RL and converted?

In any case, it does appear that someone somewhere isnt going to die wondering about the state of RL in their country.
And more importantly, they aren't interested in waiting for Australia to send in the 9th Division. I'd be interested to know how much help is being offered and where the help (if any)is coming from.

 

[imported_Roopy4246]

Willow,
I'm surprized you don't know this, but League in Russia started pretty much under the old communist regime when they hired Rod Reddy as a national development officer.
In those days they set up sports with centralised administration bodies funded by the government and they just hired Reddy and set him to work teaching the game.
The leagues that are playing now are independent remnants of the national system set up in the eigthies.

 

[imported_JoeD]

If I was PNG and Russia got a test with australia any time soon, I'd be pretty pissed off. Or France for that matter. Not wanting to be too negative but does this change anything for Russia in a practical sense?

 

[ali]

I don't think it changes much in a practical sense, and its not like they suddenly get millions of dollars worth of funding.
But its no doubt they are on the up. The first time they got the world attention was when the student tournament in Kazan, Tartastan got a crowd of 20000 show up to the opening match. Since then there has been 10000 in Kazan for the USA match and 30000 in Moscow for the Russia vs USA match. The fact that games are being played in the massive Olympic stadium is a massive boost, and we are told around 6000 people showed up to the Russian Grand Final in the Olympic stadium.
Obviously they still have along way to go but they seem a have a reasonable geographic spread across the nation(s) and strong government support in Tartastan. 2 new teams have been promoted to the premier division for the coming season, one of which is a second Tarta team, the Kazan Energy.

 

[Willow]

I must confess Roopy that I didnt really know that but now that you mention it, it does ring a bell.

Joe, why would PNG or France be pissed off? Both these countries are of Test status and Australia played a Test against PNG not all thatlong ago. NZ played a Test against France just last year.

Nothing stopping Russia playing France as well... except for money perhaps.
IMO, This would be a great match up and more feasible than watching Australia walk all over the French.

 

[CanadianSteve]

Itwas only last yearthat we had talesof RU getting crowds of 30,000 so whats happened sinced? Are RU still getting the crowds they boasted last year or have Russians Unionists suddenly discovered RL and converted?

I think Rusia has both league and union players and clubs. But I read that Russia may be suspended or DQd from the RUWC because they used an ineligible player in qualifying games. Maybe this would hurt union in russia and give league a boost?

 

[Willow]

Steve, if that is true, I'm not surprised.
RU trying to ban players who participate in Leagueis an established ploy.


Rugby Union has a long history of tryng to undermine Rugby League.
Wherever there is RL, you can be sure there areRU officials using underhanded methods to discredit the better of the two games.

Sometimes this works for Union... their greatest 'achievement' being the facists who dismantled RL in France in the 1940s.
But sometimes it backfires. The glaring examples being Australia and more recently, New Zealand.

 

[bris-eel]

Rugby League had nothing to do with the Russians being thrrown out of the qualifyingstages for the Rugby World Cup, the Spanish, I think it was, put in a complaint after they had lost to the Russians, about the players they used and it was found that the Russians had used three South Africans who were not Russian citizens yet and were therefore ineligible to play for that country.

The Russians were thrown out and the Spanish took there place into the next round.

It is great news about Russia being included into Rugby League's international community.

 

[CanadianSteve]

Bris-eel has already explained this, but I didn't mean to imply that the ineligible Russian RU players had anything to do with league. I knew it was a question of their nationality.

I think Russia has both league and union players and clubs. What I meant here is that Russia has both codes, separately. I think each isstronger in different parts of the country. I don't know if there is much contact or competition between the 2 codes within Russia. Certainly it's a big enough country to eventually have both. Sorry if I misled you Willow.

I saw an opinion article on Rugby Heaven criticizing the IRB for dealing too harshly with Russia over the eligible players matter. Its point was that they shouldn't do damage to the growth of union in Russia by keeping them out of the WC, and that other countries, Scotland I think, have had similar eligiblity violations and received lesser punishment.