Rugby League Coaching Manuals

Rugby League is set for significant expansion and exposure at all levels in the Middle East and North Africa regions during 2009. Domestic competition is already a feature of the sporting landscape of Lebanon and the Cedars are set to be joined for the first time by Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, while last week saw the hosting of two youth tournaments in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Those latter events have been used as preparation ahead of next week's ground-breaking Kingdom of Saudi Arabia schools tour to Doha.

In Jeddah, situated on the Red Sea coast of the Arabian Gulf kingdom, thirteen teams at Under 12’s, 14’s and 16’s from the Jeddah Prep & Grammar School, American International School and British International School competed against each other.

JPGS 'A', led by forwards Ruan Kneppel (RSA) and local boy Abdul Rawoof Abbas, kicked off the cosmopolitan competition by winning the U-14s tournament. Both JPGS sides contained five Saudis, with the remaining players drawn from Britain, South Africa, Lebanon, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Taiwan, Pakistan, New Zealand and Yemen.

The Under 12’s tournament was won by 'Conti' (British International School) led by Saudi captain Omar Ali Reza, who topped the try-scoring charts. He was well supported by two other locals, hard-running Badr Al-Banawi and Rohy Al-Saad as Conti sailed through undefeated and even managed to keep their opponents scoreless. Added to the mix of nationalities playing were children from the Gambia, Morocco, Syria, Sudan and Algeria.

In the Under16’s category JPGS lost their crown to Conti, who were superbly marshalled by their Syrian hooker Aboudeh Sweiden. Saudi Kamal Khashoggi set the uncompromising tone in defence while the winning tries were registered by Lebanese speedster Ryan Raad, powerful Syrian forward Bisher Shehabi and tenacious Youssef Al-Fadl, another Saudi.

The pick of the Under16’s sides will now fly to Qatar on 4th March to participate in a two-day 9's tournament. The tour, sponsored by Luna, Qatar Airways and Porsche/SAMACO, is the first competitive pan-Arab youth tournament in the sport's history .

In readiness, in the Qatari capital, Doha, four schools - Al Khor International School, Doha College, Gulf English School and Qatar International School also staged an Under16’s event, with Al Khor, situated 50km north of Doha, taking the honours.

The victorious side was led by Sofiane Mokhtefi (Algeria) and included Ahmad Barahmeh (Palestine), James Hamer (England), Rhys Smith (NZ) and Andrew Walters (Wales) who were ably supported by their Qatari, Sudanese and Indonesian team-mates.

Rugby League European Federation Director of Development EuroMed, Danny Kazandjian, who will attend the Doha tournament, was full of praise for the developments in the Gulf. 

"A huge amount of credit must go to the sports teachers who have put in so much effort and enthusiasm in KSA and Qatar to get rugby league off the ground" he said.

"The results speak for themselves and it is outstanding to see so many Arab children becoming absorbed by our sport, with the same kind of passion being kindled in Jeddah and Doha as you would expect to find in any of the more traditional areas."

"We have an opportunity to consult with one another in Doha in March to draw up further plans for the advancement of the sport in the Gulf, including, I hope, official recognition from the Saudi and Qatari governments" he added.

"I am greatly looking forward to seeing children of so many different nationalities enjoying their rugby league. The Qatar tournament promises to be a really inspirational couple of days."

There are also plans for Lebanon's Under 16’s national team to tour Jeddah in June and, at the same time as the junior tournament is taking place in Qatar, in the Levant the LRLC will be holding its inaugural schools tournament in Tripoli’s Olympic stadium, with 15 schools set to attend.