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.
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| Team information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governing body | Czech Rugby League Association | |||||
| Region | Europe | |||||
| Head coach | Ladislav Cintler | |||||
| Captain | Jarda Stribro | |||||
| Most caps | Michal Priputen (10) Tomas Holovsky (10) | |||||
| IRL ranking | 21st | |||||
| Uniforms | ||||||
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| Team results | ||||||
| First game | ||||||
 British Student Pioneers 29–8  Czech Republic(Prague, Czech Republic; 2006) | ||||||
| Biggest win | ||||||
Czech Republic 30–4 Germany  (Olomouc, Czech Republic; 2009) | ||||||
| Biggest defeat | ||||||
| Germany 96–0 Czech Republic (Hochspeyer, Germany; 2010) | ||||||
History
editThe Czech Association of Rugby League (CZARL) began life in early 2006, under the guidance of former Czech rugby union international Milan Mrtýnek and Englishman Iain Sellers.
The squad's first training session, in February 2006, was held in an indoor basketball hall because of an extremely fierce Czech winter. From these modest beginnings, the Czech Republic team, with support from the Rugby League European Federation, struggled to play four full games in their debut season.
Perhaps inevitably, given the unfamiliarity of the game, the Czech Republic lost all four matches, and the margins of defeat were not narrow. The Czechs played their first two games against the touring British Student Pioneers team. A 29–2 loss in Prague was followed by a less encouraging 34–2 defeat in Olomouc.
This was followed by the first away trip to Rotterdam to face the Netherlands Tasman team, where the newcomers were narrowly defeated 34–28. In their final game of the season, also in Prague, the Czechs were beaten 36–28 by Serbia, in the inaugural "Slavic Cup" match between the two countries.
In 2007 The Czech Republic played in the European Shield tournament against the Germany and Serbia. This saw them travel to Belgrade to play Serbia and Germany travelled to Prague. Both games were lost. The Serbia game doubled again as a Slavic Cup match. In 2008 the Czech Republic team once again competed in the European Shield along with Italy and Germany, with a domestic competition in u16, u18 and Senior level.
In 2011, the Czech Rugby League Association was admitted to affiliate membership of the Rugby League European Federation after reforming its governance.[1]
Current squad
editThe Czech Republic national team for the 2021 Men's Rugby League World Cup qualifying match against Norway on June 16, 2018.[2]
| Pos. | Player | Club |
|---|---|---|
| Fullback | Patrik Koliska | |
| Wing | Oldřich Chrbolka | |
| Centre | Filip Špaček | |
| Centre | Daniel Kittl | |
| Wing | Jan Mudroch | |
| Five-eighth | Ladislav Cintler | |
| Halfback | Tomáš Řičica | |
| Prop | Tomáš Adamec | |
| Hooker | Petr Šedina | |
| Prop | Pavel Mejstřík | |
| Second-row | Jan Heininger | |
| Second-row | Richard Gach | |
| Lock | Ondřej Preininger | |
| - | Dominik Machek | |
| - | Lukáš Krištof | |
| - | Adam Petržela | |
| - | Aleš Pour | |
| - | Pavel Mikeska | |
| - | Roman Pavelek |
Competitive record
editThe following is a summary of tournaments and results for the Czech Republic National Rugby League Team.
European Championship
edit| European Championship Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | League | Round | Position | Pld | W | D | L |
| 2021 | D | Final | 2nd | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2023 | B | TBA out of 6 | Qualified | ||||
IRL Rankings
edit| Official rankings as of 30 June 2024 | |||
| Rank | Change | Team | Pts % |
| 1 | 100 | ||
| 2 | 82 | ||
| 3 | 80 | ||
| 4 | 67 | ||
| 5 | 49 | ||
| 6 | 47 | ||
| 7 | 46 | ||
| 8 | 28 | ||
| 9 | 22 | ||
| 10 | 20 | ||
| 11 | 19 | ||
| 12 | 17 | ||
| 13 | 15 | ||
| 14 | 15 | ||
| 15 | 14 | ||
| 16 | 14 | ||
| 17 | 13 | ||
| 18 | 10 | ||
| 19 | 9 | ||
| 20 | 7 | ||
| 21 | 7 | ||
| 22 | 6 | ||
| 23 | 6 | ||
| 24 | 6 | ||
| 25 | 6 | ||
| 26 | 5 | ||
| 27 | 5 | ||
| 28 | 4 | ||
| 29 | 4 | ||
| 30 | 4 | ||
| 31 | 4 | ||
| 32 | 4 | ||
| 33 | 3 | ||
| 34 | 3 | ||
| 35 | 3 | ||
| 36 | 3 | ||
| 37 | 2 | ||
| 38 | 2 | ||
| 39 | 1 | ||
| 40 | 1 | ||
| 41 | 1 | ||
| 42 | 1 | ||
| 43 | 1 | ||
| 44 | 1 | ||
| 45 | 0 | ||
| 46 | 0 | ||
| 47 | 0 | ||
| 48 | 0 | ||
| 49 | 0 | ||
| 50 | 0 | ||
| 51 | 0 | ||
| 52 | 0 | ||
| 53 | 0 | ||
| 54 | 0 | ||
| 55 | 0 | ||
| 56 | 0 | ||
| 57 | 0 | ||
| Complete rankings at INTRL.SPORT | |||
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Caplan, Phil (27 October 2011). "RLEF formally admits four new members". www.rleague.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
- ^ "Preview:European Championship C - Czech Republic v Norway". rlwc2021.com. 15 June 2018.