Germany

[Druzik]

Yeah cabbage kicking is the prefered sport.... Sunday in my town alone we had about 10,000 in the main square (out of 50,000 people) to watch Germany roll Poland on a big arse screen TV!

Handball is popular especially in thye north where I am, its a bit like RL in England it has its geographical origins where it is the strongest. Ice Hokey also is quite popular and Volleyball. That is massive sport all over Europe though, even in poland its not unheard of a club game getting 8,000 to a game. The winter sports like skiing and ski jumping also and the usual sport of putting down the turks and estern europeans Though we gtive as good as we get. ;D

mmmm tennis is also popular the Hamburg masters had sell out crowds a few weeks ago, thats about 10,000 per day, 7 days.

[Druzik]

[glow=red,2,300]A chapter closes in German Rugby League[/glow]

Germany XIII 22 def. by RLEF Celts XIII 32

The 9th of August saw a chapter in Germany Rugby Leagues pages come to an end. Germany's long standing captain Leonhardt (Leo) Bergruber played and lead his final match for the national team in what has to be the most spectacular and beautiful venue Rugby League has ever been played in. With the Bavarian Alps literally hundreds of meters away towering over the Bad Reichenhall sports field Germany faced a RLEF Celts team led by Andy Fairhurst and full of many of Leos firends and opponents over the last few years, all coming out to say goodbye and thanks for the memories. Unfortunately the old pagan weather gods were not smiling and the torrential rain made several of the fields unplayable, but one field was finally found and the match went ahead as scheduled.

The match opened in explosive fasion with Germany breaking down the right flank of the Celts in the first few minutes to put on a near length of the firld try. However the Celts response was to lay doen the law defensively and in attack. A few silly penalties near the German line allowed the Calts several sets of six to put points on and take a pretty handy lead into the break, 16-06. The second half started out similar with the Celts putting on an easrly try through Andrew Mulhall, but then the Germans led by Leo up front hit back with several trys to claw back the score to 22-22 with only about 10 mins to go. However it was not to be for Leo and Germany, who were fielding a young developmental squad essentially with many Reichenhallians and Bavarians in the team, two more trys by the Celts led them to a good victory, but never the less it was a match and day that everyone enjoyed. Thankfully there were no injuries from the match, though the Referee cam close when a miss timed kickoff magaed to collect him right where it countd at point blank range. The spirit was fantastic and after the games, the German teams sponsor Apfelstopf beer has some nice drinks and refreshments ready, both teams mixed it and made new friends and old adversaries said their thanks to Leo. Everyone then went back into to town for presentations and more clebrations.

However Leos retirement from playing does not mean his end in Rugby league. Leo will still be involved in the running of Rugby League Deutschland and in development, but also runs the Bad Reichenhall rugby League and Union club, so I am sure we will still see Leo at games in the future.

Leo Berngruber, all the best mate.

[Druzik]

[kuwaitikev]

Nice story Druzik and I love the footage of the ref getting nailed by the ball lol.

Who was in the Celts side?

[Druzik]

Aug 12, 2008 6:25:09 GMT 10 kuwaitikev said:

Nice story Druzik and I love the footage of the ref getting nailed by the ball lol.

Who was in the Celts side?

There was much more drama to the day actually due to the weather, so as I mentioned we had issues with the field, but as it turned out there was flooding on the roads in polaces and also road accidents from inbsbruck to Salzburg and so a few more of the Austrians could not make it, they travelled 30 km in 3 hours! There was no way they could make it on time and had to turn back. Also the previous few day the German team got decimated with injuries at work, with two broken colarbones and a a few broken arms and dislocations, so funnily both teams were literally down to 13 men to start with, periodically through the game they would let a player(s) come off for a quick break so both teams would go to 12 and even 11 men at times. Its amazing that appart from the ref (gawd thats funny) no one else was injured at all!

The Party afterwards was great, so we ended up in a "Irish Bar" which wasn't very Irish really, I think only the name was irish but everything else was quite Bavarian, great beer, but the Czechs got thi gawd awful home stilled apricot schnaps out and everyone started doing that... as you can imagine many did not handle it well, must have easily been 60% in it, Leo got totalled as we all wanted to do to him... even Simon Cooper had a beer or two for Leo and I have never seen him have a drink of beer at all! A few others went into Salzburg to party the rest of the night.. other just stayed on in Bad Reichenhall, I had an ealty train so there was no Salzburg partying for me.

So the Celts side was made up of mainly Czech's since they have played the most agaionst the Germans, a Scott, Austrians and a couple of Englishman. There was a USA fellow too that went to Uni with Leo I think. So best I have in terms of team lists at the moment are:
Germany XIII
01. Felix Miernik
02. ?
03. Sebastian Goetzinger
04. Paul Szehofner
05. Paul Berngruber
06. Liam Doughton
07. Phillip Bachman
08. Michael Kamml
09. Leo Berngruber(c)
10. ?
11. Nick McPhil
12. Micky Reinhold
13. Simon Cooper

RLEF Celts XIII
01. Michal Priputen (Cze)
02. ?
03. Ben Jones (Eng)
04. Tom Lawrencen (Aut)
05. Lukas Marimek (Cze)
06. ?
07. Andy Fairhurst (Eng)
08. Morgan Martin (Sct)
09. David Dalak (Cze)
10. Michal Hora (Cze)
11. Tom Argyle (USA)
12. James Wright (Aut)
13. Andrew Mulhall (Cze)

[kuwaitikev]

Lol, yeah I guessed you boys would have had a big night afterwards

Thanks for the info

[Druzik]

Just got this from Simon Cooper at RLD. Great news.

Rugby League Deutschland are being considered for "Union / Federation of the Year" award in the Rugby Business Awards 2008. This award is for a Union, Federation or Governing Body that has shown outstanding dedication to the growth of rugby in the areas under its remit and demonstrated success in its achievements within Rugby league and Rugby Union.Rugby League Deutschland has just finished its 3rd year since starting up in July 2005 and has set a high standard for itself to reach. In that time we see now Germany has over 70 players, of which many are under the age of 23. We have seen alone in 2008 , 9 U22 year olds represent Germany on the International stage. We are well known for being organized and being able to host well run Internationals and other games that despite having a budget currently of less than 5000€
The Awards are in conjunction with the RugbyExpo that is being held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Central London on Monday 17th November and Tuesday 18th November. Leeds Rhinos, London Wasps, Saracens, Puma, Guiness, GlaxoSmithKline, Deloitte, Grays amongst many others will be in attendance. For more info go to www.rugbyexpo.com/
Keep a watch here for some more positive announcements for 2009, as Rugby League Deutschland keeps pushing ahead in the development of Rugby League in Germany.

[Spider]

What would qualify Germany for this award?

[Druzik]

Bit of inside info... German domestic comp, XIII, likely to be in june some time. Teams will be Beyern, Rohrbach Hornets, Rhineland and mixed. To be held in Nurnberg hopefully.

When official announcement is made I will post it up.

I will probably try and have a run in the mixed team

[Druzik]

www.rlef.eu.com/news.php?id=1021

Heidelberg- based Uwe Jansen has been appointed as the first part- time Rugby League Development Officer in Germany by the European Federation.
The 45 year old, who was born in the city and works for the local council there, has been involved with the code over the last four years and will now be responsible for helping it to spread throughout the country.
“It is a great honour to get this job” he said. “I feel this could be the start of a healthy growth for the game in Germany”
“I have played rugby union since I was six and won some German Championships before moving into coaching and my only sadness is that I was never able to play league in my time as an active player.”
“Ever since I saw it on cable television here in the mid-eighties I developed a love for this great game and I am now happy to be a more formal part of it.”
“I can now try to bring many German people into contact with the sport.”
Simon Cooper, President of the German Rugby League, endorsed the appointment which he sees as the next step towards the code making significant progress in the Republic.
“Rugby League Deutschland is very grateful for the help we have received from the RLEF, especially with regards to bringing in a development officer for Germany” he commented.
“The European Federation has helped us reach many of our targets and together we are making sure that rugby league gets the solid base and structure it needs to make further progress in the future.”
“Uwe has a proven record in developing the sport in central Germany; many of the things achieved by RL Deutschland, are because of him and his team based around Heidelberg, Frankfurt and the surrounding area and it is a pleasure to see him rewarded for his hardwork to date.”
RLEF Development Executive Kevin Rudd feels that the appointment is a key one for maintaining momentum in the region.
“I am pleased for German Rugby League, there were all kinds of obstacles in their way that could have stopped the sport gaining a real foothold there” he said.
“However, the RLD Board have overcome them and shown great courage and tenacity in doing so.”
“They have grown steadily and I hope this appointment will be the stimulus needed to establish regular domestic activity at senior level as well as continuing youth development”.

This is great news for Uwe and RLD. I know Uwe well, he is also the coach of the National team and the Heidelberg based Rohrbach Hornets. He has been pushing this position for a while, good to see its come about.

He has dsome good plans for RLD, along with Simon cooper RLD is in good hands and shape.

[Druzik]

CALENDER

23/24 May--National Camp (Hochspeyer)
30 May--Team Alpenstoff Germany in the Oslo 9s (Oslo)
27/28 June--State of Origin (Nürnberg)4 States play against each other!
4 June--Czech Republic v Germany (Olomouc)
18 June--Germany v Italy (Hürth)
8 August--Belguim XIII v Germany "A" (Brussels)

[Druzik]

rugby-league.de/en/international-success

International Success

Congratulations to Neil Harmon who has been selected as the Celtic Nations National Students Coach. This role that will see him merge Irish, Welsh and Scottish students together to face England in a fixture to be held in April. For those students involved the game is the final chance to shine in order to achieve representative honors for Great Britain. We wish the best of luck to Neil and Rugby League Deutschland Director David Griffiths who has been seleceted as his Assistant coach for the forthcoming fixture.

[Druzik]

rugby-league.de/en/leeds-university-versus-leeds-carnegie-in-bucs-cup

Leeds University to face Leeds Carnegie in the BUCS Cup.

Neil Harmon, who is no stranger to Rugby League Deutschland, having run coaching sessions with the Deutschland National team, has led Leeds University to the final of the BUCS Cup. Prior to Neils arrival Leeds University had been relegated into Division Two, failing to win a single game the previous season. This season under Neils guidance, Leeds University have only lost one game and this was to Leeds Metropolitan 1st team in a warm up game. They go into the final having overcome sides from the BUCS Super 6 and the BUCS First Division. The final is sure to be a good one and we wish Neil and his assistant coach’s Craig Westmoreland and David Griffiths every success.

[Druzik]

rugby-league.de/en/under-18-s-rugby-league-hits-germany

Under 18's Rugby League Hits Germany

Heidelberg Lions U 18s and Rohrbach Hornets U18s played their first U18s game in Germany. The game was a thriller as both teams gave everything but there was to be no winner as it ended 32-32.

Further U18s games are planned for the coming weeks involving teams from around Baden Württemberg. 17 year old Christian Michaeli was one of a number of players who impressed. Uwe Jansen is the person who has done a lot of the hard work to get Youth Rugby League going in Germany. Its hoped that through the Youth development being done by Uwe Jansen as well as others, will soon see a Germany National U18s team set up in the next couple of years.

With a number of teenagers in the National team like Micky Reinhold (Bad Reichenhall), Fabrice Fehlemann, Liam Doughton (Rheinland Reds) and Jimmy Keinhorst (German Exiles) its hoped that further youngsters push on to make the grade at National level.

In May a Domestic competition will start featuring Karlsruhe University, Rohrbach Hornets, Frankfurt/Heilbronn, Rammstein and Kaiserslautern as well as a new competition featuring State v State which will take place in Nürnberg on 27 and 28 June. Anybody wanting to play Rugby League especially at U18s level should send an Email to Uwe Jansen & Simon Cooper

[Druzik]

Just got word, Bayern/Bavaria, Nord Rhein Westfalen, Baden Württemberg and then the joint Hessen/Rheinland Pfalz are the 4 states for the German state of origin.