Meanwhile, back in the emerging International scene......

[Evil Homer]

I firmly believe the winner of the Euro B should gain a spot in the RLWC.Reward for actually developing the game in actual country.

I'm as big a supporter of Serbia as anyone but them being given a spot in the WC would be a disaster at this point. No teams should ever be in the comp until they're strong enough to compete, that's what the qualifiers are for. Serbia will get there one day, it might take 20 more years but people need to realize that this is what international development is, not hot-shotting a bunch of amateurs into an elite level competition as a token gesture just so we can all pat each other on the back.

Mmmmmm........

For some reason i feel a little short changed if that is the case.


Thought maybe one or two players might have experience at a lower level.... not half the squad.


Oh well, good for the future growth i hope.

Why? Malta had several players from the English pro leagues and I think one or two from Australia. It's international footy, not some f**king charity match. I hate posts like this.

 

[Evil Homer]

Malta and Belgium after the game.

They also announced after the game that Leeds Rhinos will be entering into some sort of coaching partnership with the RLEF, I'll try to find full details.

 

[deluded pom?]

Were you at the game DP?

Unfortunately not.

 

[deluded pom?]

That is true, Belgium do only have one team at the moment, but if you look at their team, you can easily see why they were able to play so well:

Guillaume Van Der Elst (Brussels Broncos), Karnik Avedikian, Kamel Belkiri, Yann Bertrand, Nicolas Bourgin, Yvan Leroyer, Colin Niez (all Lyon-Villeurbanne Rugby XIII), Adam Bahemou, Jonathan Bouillon, Agim Coroli, Martin Derom, Josquin De Winne, Christopher Eyns, Lelio Guilmard, Iliass Laachiri, Stanley Rogerio, Simon Troquereau (all North Brussels Gorillas), Quentin Leclercq, Damien Parée (both Villegailhenc Aragon RL)

6 players in Elite 2 and another two just below that.

Sounded like a fantastic game, would have been great to be there!

Thanks lp. I didn't realise Belgium had these players to call on.

 

[langpark]

Thanks lp. I didn't realise Belgium had these players to call on.

Neither did I! But it's great that they do and it seems the teams were dead-evenly matched in the end!

 

[paulmac]

Homer - I take your point but at the moment all we have is a tournament of heritage players.With our World Cup basically having 2 tiers ,Serbia would probably get well beaten but not disgraced when put into that bottom tier.

 

[Evil Homer]

Homer - I take your point but at the moment all we have is a tournament of heritage players.With our World Cup basically having 2 tiers ,Serbia would probably get well beaten but not disgraced when put into that bottom tier.

They would be. A few weeks ago they were beaten by 60 points by a bunch of semi-pro players from the French league. I don't know why you would even attempt to discredit the World Cup but the absolute last thing we need is uncredible teams. When Serbia are good enough they will be there. Do not patronize them by suggesting they would even want to be there before then.

 

[The Partisan]

I'm as big a supporter of Serbia as anyone but them being given a spot in the WC would be a disaster at this point. No teams should ever be in the comp until they're strong enough to compete, that's what the qualifiers are for. Serbia will get there one day, it might take 20 more years but people need to realize that this is what international development is, not hot-shotting a bunch of amateurs into an elite level competition as a token gesture just so we can all pat each other on the back.
Why? Malta had several players from the English pro leagues and I think one or two from Australia. It's international footy, not some f**king charity match. I hate posts like this.

EH, I agree with you in the first instance regarding Serbia. I think all of us long term ( suffering !!!) advocates of the International arena would love to see a 'truly home grown' new fontier on the big stage - but as as you say it may take time and if they are truly keen on their development they will get there one day.

My comments re the Malta v Belgium game were mostly drawn from the fact that i was genuinely surprised to hear of the high proportion of experienced players in the team. Especially after reading your earlier post about their having 'accomplished players and played some great football' where i assumed they were all new comers to the game.

EH, I am sure we both share the passion for the advancement of the game across Europe and other parts of the globe. I can guarante you i don't see these games as charity matches !

 

[Evil Homer]

EH, I agree with you in the first instance regarding Serbia. I think all of us long term ( suffering !!!) advocates of the International arena would love to see a 'truly home grown' new fontier on the big stage - but as as you say it may take time and if they are truly keen on their development they will get there one day.

My comments re the Malta v Belgium game were mostly drawn from the fact that i was genuinely surprised to hear of the high proportion of experienced players in the team. Especially after reading your earlier post about their having 'accomplished players and played some great football' where i assumed they were all new comers to the game.

EH, I am sure we both share the passion for the advancement of the game across Europe and other parts of the globe. I can guarante you i don't see these games as charity matches !

Experienced or not, they are still new players in the international arena. It's anything but disappointing that a fledgling international team playing its first high-profile match was able to put on such a great display.

 

[The Partisan]

Fair call. Here's cheers to a bright future for Belgian RL ! :C:

 

[The Partisan]

P.S. I'll shout you a pint at the 2033 RLWC when Serbia play Belgium !

 

[dorcolrugby]

Well, I see that Serbia's win over Italy is almost taken for granted. I'm afraid to think it was unwanted.
Italy used 5 heritage players (very good Lepori from Whitehaven, NZ born Esposito from Sheffield, former France intl. Caleghari from Lezignan, and ever-present Marcinczak from Albi and Fontana from Carpentras) + player who was in RLWC squad and plays in England (solid utilility forward Celerino). Serbia had only one player who was born and raised outside Serbia (Muranka from Dewsbury), all other from domestic comp.
It looks like it was waited Serbia to loose, just someone could say: Here they are, after all they do, they can still beat no one.

Re France match: we lost to, at that moment, full France team (the game was full test for ranking points under international rules,...). In other circumstances, this "bunch" of players would be second choice to Catalan-filled French team, but they are not semi-pro players. FYI, Tony Gigot was drawn in last minute by Dragons to play vs Wigan the day after and he was voted man of the match after three scored tries.
The big problem is that we don't have opposition to play with during season. Heritage teams would play, but when they fill themselves to Australians, and central or northern Europe teams obviously are not confident in themselves like the winning is the most important. They would rather loose to heritage team than to Serbia. That's why we had to play France, not because we are masochists. At teh end of the day, I believe that the match v France was valuable for our players to see where they are at the moment. In Euro B, we have 4 wins from 5 matches, which is achievement we didn't have for years. And that's showcase of progress. The others (Russia, Italy, Ukraine) are not get weaker, they progress too.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

Serbia's win is certainly not unwanted, I'm not sure why you think this. Everyone here has nothing but praise for the Serbians, because they are the nation that has shown the most progress in Europe. I think everyone would agree with this.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

I think the word he may have been looking for was unheralded ;-)

Good reports and updates.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Old school coat hanger in that German video

 

[Evil Homer]

Well, I see that Serbia's win over Italy is almost taken for granted. I'm afraid to think it was unwanted.
Italy used 5 heritage players (very good Lepori from Whitehaven, NZ born Esposito from Sheffield, former France intl. Caleghari from Lezignan, and ever-present Marcinczak from Albi and Fontana from Carpentras) + player who was in RLWC squad and plays in England (solid utilility forward Celerino). Serbia had only one player who was born and raised outside Serbia (Muranka from Dewsbury), all other from domestic comp.
It looks like it was waited Serbia to loose, just someone could say: Here they are, after all they do, they can still beat no one.

Re France match: we lost to, at that moment, full France team (the game was full test for ranking points under international rules,...). In other circumstances, this "bunch" of players would be second choice to Catalan-filled French team, but they are not semi-pro players. FYI, Tony Gigot was drawn in last minute by Dragons to play vs Wigan the day after and he was voted man of the match after three scored tries.
The big problem is that we don't have opposition to play with during season. Heritage teams would play, but when they fill themselves to Australians, and central or northern Europe teams obviously are not confident in themselves like the winning is the most important. They would rather loose to heritage team than to Serbia. That's why we had to play France, not because we are masochists. At teh end of the day, I believe that the match v France was valuable for our players to see where they are at the moment. In Euro B, we have 4 wins from 5 matches, which is achievement we didn't have for years. And that's showcase of progress. The others (Russia, Italy, Ukraine) are not get weaker, they progress too.

I certainly wasn't trying to discredit the progress of Serbia, just the idea of the other poster that Serbia should be automatically included in the World Cup without properly qualifying based on sentimental reasons. The fact that Serbia were able to compete for 40 minutes vs France is great progress and you're right that these games are more valuable for development than playing amateurs, but it's still a long way from the standard that would be faced in the World Cup. Either way I'll be rooting for you above every other nation next October, as I'm sure will everyone else on this forum. Even making it to that stage and being able to play serious matches against the likes of Wales and Ireland will be good for development.

The fact that people are no longer shocked when Serbia win an important match is credit to your progress TBH.

P.S. I'll shout you a pint at the 2033 RLWC when Serbia play Belgium !

No issues with that