Sport | Rugby league |
---|---|
Founded | 2004 |
CEO | Bob Doughton (President) |
No. of teams | 6 |
Most recent champion(s) | none |
Rugby league is a minor sport in Germany. The national governing body for the sport, Rugby League Deutschland, is an associate member of the Rugby League European Federation. The country's national team are regular competitors in the European Shield, winning the competition in 2006 and 2011.
Rugby league was introduced into Germany in August 2004 with the formation of Rugby League Deutschland by Simon Cooper who was born in Halifax, England whose father is German. Prior to that it had been played informally by expat players associations such as British servicemen and students.
The first ever game didn't take place until nearly 12 months later when on 23 July the Heidelberg Sharks beat München RLFC 72-64 in a 9-a-side game played in Heidelberg. Since then clubs Bad Reichenhall and Innsbruck have also played matches.
In 2005 there was the first match between a Germany XIII and a touring Scottish Students side. This was a catalyst for Germany entering in 2006 in their first full international tournament the Central Europe Development Tri-Nations and then subsequently in the European Shield in 2007 and 2008. In 2011, Rugby League Deutschland was admitted to affiliate membership of the Rugby League European Federation after reforms to its governance. [1]
The popularity of rugby league in Germany is small, and rugby of any form is still very much unknown by Germans. 80 adult players and around 200 children were introduced to the game in 2008.
In 2007 a State (Bundesland) of Origin style concept has also been introduced with two regional teams representing Bavaria and Central Germany. The weekend of this game is also used to bring everyone together for a training session and for the Coach and selectors to see all players in one place and also to have a meeting. The first such game was played in 2007 in Nürnberg.
The current captain of the national side is Brad Billsborough and the coach is Bob Doughton.
As well as playing friendlies and one-off games, the German national team has participated in two tournaments. In the 2006 Germany participated in the Central Europe Development Tri-Nations along with Austria and Estonia. Germany won both of their matches narrowly beating Austria in Bad Reichenhall in front of over 350 people. They then travelled to Tallinn and beat Estonia to seal victory and outright first place of the competition.
In 2007 they took part in the RLEF European Shield along with the Czech Republic and Serbia. In this tournament they took out second place. They were beaten in Heidelberg by a strong Serbia side but recovered and beat a tough Czech Republic team in Prague by 22 points.
In 2008 Germany will once again be participating in the RLEF European Shield with the Czech Republic and newcomers Italy. Serbia were promoted to a group with Russia and Lebanon on their strong performance in 2007. The games will be held in Padova, Italy, Prague, Czech Republic and Frankfurt, Germany. There are also games proposed against Serbia and an RLEF XIII, but are yet to be confirmed.
The first weekend of August each year is being set aside for a game against the Czech Republic, no matter if facing each other in a tournament or not. Also plans are to have friendlies against Austria, though in 2007 this game fell through.
Some results for Germany in Rugby League (XIII).
Central Development Tri-Nations
Team | P | W | D | L | Pt | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Germany | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
2 | Austria | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
3 | Estonia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
RLEF European Shield Tri-Nations
Team | P | W | D | L | Pt | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Serbia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
2 | Germany | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
3 | Czech Republic | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
RLEF European Shield Tri-Nations
Team | P | W | D | L | Pt | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Italy | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
2 | Germany | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
3 | Czech Republic | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Other games
German State of Origin
At the moment the criteria for representing Germany is to have played in one of the domestic teams or the German Exiles. The current list is of staff and players that have played for Germany in the full internationals.
HEAD TRAINERS | Uwe Jansen & Dan Stocks |
---|---|
ASSISTANT TRAINERS | Bob Doughton & Paul Szehofner |
DIRECTOR OF RUGBY LEAGUE | David Griffiths |
PHYSIO | Mick Dwyer |
Name | Position | Club |
---|---|---|
BASTIAN, Dominik | Fullback | Heidelberg |
BERNGRUBER, Leonhard (c) | Bad Reichenhall | |
BILLSBOROUGH, Brad (c) | North Wales Crusaders | |
COOPER, SIMON | Bad Reichenhall | |
FRERA, Joachim | Hooker , Second-row | Frankfurt |
FROESCHNER, Max | German Exiles | |
GLASER, Michael | Centre , Wing | Heidelberg |
HOTTENROTT, Moritz | Prop | Heidelberg |
KEINHORST, Jimmy | Hooker | German Exiles |
KEINHORST, Kristian | Stand-off | German Exiles |
KEINHORST, Markus | Centre | German Exiles |
KEINHORST, Nick | Wing | German Exiles |
KETTNER, Andreas | Bad Reichenhall | |
KHAN, Anjum | Heidelberg | |
KLOEPPER, Alex | Wing | Heidelberg |
KRUSE, Janis | Heidelberg | |
PETIT, Nick | Heidelberg | |
RHEM Benedikt | Second-row | Heidelberg Lions |
RUHSTORFER, Patrick | Heidelberg Lions | |
SMUTNA, Peter | Nürnberg | |
STOCKS, Daniel | Loose forward | German Exiles |
VOLKMANN, Higgi | Frankfurt | |
ZABEL, Julian | Wing | Bad Reichenhall |
The Greece national rugby league team represents Greece in rugby league. The team has been participating in international competition since 2003.
The Netherlands national rugby league team is the national rugby league team of The Netherlands. It was formed in January 2003. The national team played its first international match in 2003 against Scotland A, where they lost 22–18.
The Serbia national rugby league team represents Serbia in the sport of rugby league football. They have competed in international competition since 2003 under the administration of the Serbian Rugby League.
The Estonia national rugby league team represents Estonia in the sport of rugby league football. Estonia started competing in international rugby league in 2005. They have competed in several tournaments, including the Central Europe Development Tri-Nations and the European Bowl.
Rugby league is a team sport that is relatively new to Greece.
Rugby league is a team sport that is played in Serbia, which now has almost 1000 registered players nationwide, many of which are juniors. Belgrade and Novi Sad are the two main bases for the sport, producing most of the country's players. The most successful Serbian club side are the Dorćol Spiders who have won the most premierships. The other club Red Star Belgrade who defeated Dorćol in the deciding game to claim the minor premiership.
The Vienna Kangaroos were an Australian Football club located in Vienna, Austria, and are Austria's first Australian Football club.
The Czech Republic national rugby league team was established to broaden the skills of the rugby union team. The team has competed in a number of competitions and hosted the Slavic Cup in 2006.
The Austrian national rugby league team are the national rugby league team of Austria. They were created to continue the spread of the game of rugby league football throughout Central Europe. Austria have played matches against a number of other European countries and also competed in the Central Europe Development Tri-Nations in 2006 alongside Germany and Estonia.
Rugby league in the Czech Republic began in 2006. The Czech national team played their first game on August 5, 2006 in Prague, losing 34-28 to the Netherlands.
The Germany national rugby league team is the national rugby league team of Germany.
Sports play a significant part in the life of many Czechs who are generally loyal supporters of their favourite teams or individuals.
The Catalonia national rugby league team represents Catalonia in the sport of rugby league football, running under the auspices of the Associació Catalana de Rugby Lliga.
The Belgium national rugby league team represents Belgium in the sport of rugby league football.
The Hungary national rugby league team, known as the Magyar Bulls, represents Hungary in the sport of rugby league football. Making their debut against the Czech Republic in July 2011, they played their first ranked international against Greece in October 2013.
Rugby league is played in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which now has over 1000 registered players nationwide, many of which are juniors. These numbers are rapidly increasing each year.
The inaugural Central Europe Development Tri-Nations rugby league competition was held in 2006. This competition is organised by the Rugby League European Federation and was designed to promote the sport of rugby league in Central Europe. The competition, contested by Austria, Germany and Estonia, was won by Germany.
International rugby league matches were played throughout 2018.
The 2018–19 Rugby League European Championship C was the tenth edition of the Rugby League European Championship C and acted as the initial phase of European qualifying to the 2021 Men's Rugby League World Cup. The series involves two pools of three teams in a round-robin tournament. These matches took place between 16 June and 15 September 2018, with the final match taking place on 18 May 2019, where Greece defeat Norway to progress to the next round of European repechage qualifying against Scotland and Serbia.