Rugby league in Greece

Rugby league is a team sport that is relatively new to Greece. The Greece national rugby league team is now an affiliate member of the Rugby League International Federation.

History

Rugby league was first introduced to Greece in 2006, with an international match in Athens. Greece played Serbia and Greece won 44–32.

The initial attempt to find a Greek RL Federation, started by Colin Mylonas, in 2003.

In 2012, a new independent initiative, appeared in Athens. It was started by Tasos Pantazidis, the founder of Promitheas RL.

Competitions

The planned domestic competition for 2006/7 never actually eventuated.

An unofficial 7's tournament was also played on the 9th of February 2013. Participating teams apart from Promitheas and AEK PK included the newly formed team "Neapoli Lakonias" that was created in Pelloponese in 2013. Promitheas won the tournament.

Teams

No	Club	Home	Started RL	Ended	Teams/s
1	Promitheas	Rendis Piraeus	2011	----	Men Seniors
2	AEK Kokkinias	Nikaea Piraeus	2012	----	Men Seniors
3	Pegasus Neos Kosmos	Athens	2012	----	Men Seniors
4	Vatika	Neapoli Lakonia	2012	----	Men Seniors
5	Aris	Petroupoli Athens	2013	----	Men Seniors
6	Knights	Rhodes	2013	2015	Men Seniors
7	Pyrrihios	Aspropyrgos Attiki	2014	----	Men Seniors, Women
8	Wolves	Argos	2014	2015	Men Seniors
9	Anagennisi	Petralona Athens	2014	----	Boys U18
10	Agios Thomas	Goudi Athens	2015	----	Men Seniors, Women, Boys U18
11	Filippos	Vereea	2015	----	Men Seniors

Promitheas, AEKK and Pegasus, participated in a regional 2012-2013 championship of Athens. In the 2013/2014 Promitheas, AEKK, Pegasus, Aris and Knights participated in the A' Division. Knights won the championship. In the B' Division, Neapoli, AEKK B', Promitheas B', Aris B' and Pegasus B' participated. Nepoli won the championship. For the 2014/15 season, there were ten teams taking part: Division 1: Rhodes Knights, AEK Kokkinias, Aris Petroupolis, Pyrrihios Aspropyrgou (1st team) and Pegasus Neos Kosmos. Pegasus won the championship. Division 2: Neapoli Lakonias, Argos Wolves, Haidari Lions, Pyrrihios Aspropyrgou ('B' team) and Promitheas Rentis.^[1]^[2] For the 2015/16 season, a new formation was planned. South Group: AEK Kokkinias, Pyrrihios Aspropyrgos and Agios Thomas. North Group: Filippos Vereea and 2 teams from Thessaloniki

The National Team

Main article: Greece national rugby league team

The Greek national rugby league team is nicknamed the Centaurs. The first representative game involving Greece was played in 2003 against New Caledonia with Greece winning 26–10. The first representative game played in Greece was played in 2006 with Greece defeating Serbia 44–26 in Athens. These games were played by "heritage" players who were based mainly in Australia and qualified to play for Greece through their parentage. In 2011 a touring GB Student "Pioneers" team played a game vs an unofficial "national" team consisting of players from the two Rhodes teams in Rhodes island. The Pioneers won. In October 2013 the Greece National Team played an international against Hungary in Budapest. Hellenic Federation of Rugby League president Tasos Pantazidis described the game as the first "official international match".^[3] The Greek team was a mixture of local players from the fledgling Greek national competition and heritage players from Australia. Greece won the game 90–0.^[4] .

References

Rugby league in Europe

Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom England Scotland Wales

States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria

Dependencies and other territories	Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Jersey Isle of Man Svalbard

Rugby League International Federation

Full members	Australia Cook Islands England Fiji France Ireland Jamaica Lebanon New Zealand Papua New Guinea Russia Samoa Scotland Serbia South Africa Tonga Ukraine Wales

Affiliate nations	Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark Germany Ghana Greece Hungary Italy Japan Latvia Malta Morocco Netherlands Norway Spain Sweden United Arab Emirates United States

Unaffiliated nations	American Samoa Argentina Austria Bosnia Burundi Catalonia Chile Ecuador El Salvador Estonia Georgia Moldova New Caledonia Niue Norfolk Island Peru Philippines Portugal Solomon Islands Thailand Tokelau Uruguay Vanuatu West Indies

International competitions	Men's World Cup Women's World Cup Tertiary Student Rugby League World Cup World Club Challenge Four Nations Tri-Nations The Ashes World Sevens World Nines Anzac Test Asian Cup Baskerville Shield European Cup European Shield European Bowl Mediterranean Cup Pacific Cup Saint Patrick's Day Test Slavic Cup Peter Leitch QSM Challenge Trophy Atlantic Cup Colonial Cup Nordic Cup Milan Kosanovic Cup Balkans Cup Cabramatta International Nines Latino Rugby League Sevens

Awards and rankings	Hall of Fame Golden Boot RLIF Awards World Rankings

Teams list	Men's Women's

Rugby union in Greece

Rugby Union	Greece national rugby union team Greek Championship Rugby Union Greek Championship Rugby Unity Cup

Rugby League	Greece national rugby league team Greek Championship Rugby League

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