International RL Blog

Wales Dragonhearts fought hard to earn a 40-32 win over the German national side that contained some professional players. The Dragonhearts, the representative side of the community ranks in Wales, were disappointed to have their first match of the tour against British Army Germany called off on the day, so were extra determined to do well in this game. It was deadlock at half-time after both sides scored three tries and converted twice. Ethan Coombes, who has scored tries in almost every game he’s played this season in his debut rugby league campaign with Valley Cougars and South Wales Scorpions Development, opened the scoring in Osnabrück on Saturday with Mike Hurley converting. Dafydd Phillips and Sam Baker each added scores for Wales before the break, Hurley converting the first.  Germany replied with tries from Andy Hoggins, Ben Dent and Ben White, Dent converting the first two, to set up an action packed second half, which Wales edged, scoring five tries to three. Dean Higgs ...

Italy played Lebanon in the Med Cup on 11/6/16 in Catania

England were too strong for France at the Parc des Sports, winning 6-40 with seven tries, six of which were converted by Gareth Widdop. England coach Wayne Bennett selected a 17-man squad with only Stefan Ratchford on the bench from the Wigan and Warrington players who appeared in the Grand Final at Old Trafford. After their disappointments of recent years, the French picked a strong looking side and they took the lead after 19 minutes with a great scoot by Eloi Pelissier from dummy-half,  with Tony Gigot adding the conversion. But the English replied with four tries in the first half, with two from Ryan Hall and one each from Tom Burgess and Daryl Clark. The French again held England in the first 20 minutes of the second half, but eventually England cut loose again, scoring three more tris from Jermaine McGillvary, Kevin Brown and Gareth Widdop, the last one being the pick of the bunch.

A late, hat-trick try from winger Aaron Jones-Bishop, from a terrific offload by skipper Wayne Reittie, saw Jamaica pull off a sensational draw with Wales in front of almost 1,400 vociferous fans in Wakefield. The Reggae Warriors, who led 12-8 at the break, produced, arguably, the most important result in their history, having also beaten Ireland last weekend on their first games in Europe. Team manager Glenn Morrison was full of praise for his men who cranked up the volume in their dressing room post-match in celebration.  “We’ve come a long in the few months we’ve been together and in these couple of games,” he said. “We dug deep, were pretty solid defensively and had each other’s back, especially when we were a man down – the character in the bunch to put that aside and come back for the equalising score said everything about us.” Morrison was keen to stress the legacy aspect. “To come out with a result like that, I don’t think anybody expected it, we’ve got to take a...