ARTICLE BY ANDY WILSON, FROM THE OBSERVER 27 MARCH 2011.
There is more than one rugby game in Twickenham on Sunday afternoon. While nobody in league would question the primacy of the Crusaders-Sharks Super 15 fundraiser at the main stadium – especially given the 13-a-side code's strong links with Christchurch – there will be an eclectic bunch of people at the Harlequins-Hull Super League fixture that precedes it at The Stoop who show that the game is finally getting serious about international development. The Rugby League's recently-formed European Federation launched its technical strategy in London week, and 48 delegates from 19 countries have fast-tracked their coaching education under the supervision of such comparative heavyweights as the England coach, Steve McNamara, and Rob Powell of Quins.
There was stiff competition for the unofficial title of most unlikely and romantic newcomers to international rugby league. Serbia, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Ireland, Russia and the US are all pretty old hat – with American development sufficiently well-established to have experienced one of the debilitating splits that have plagued the code's sporadic attempts at international expansion, although thankfully peace appears to have broken out. Germany, Latvia, Catalonia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway have a greater novelty value – although those who have travelled to Scandinavia in the past year report a real enthusiasm for the game, even if it remains at the pioneering stage that required Jamie Bloem, the former South African professional who flew to Oslo in his new role as a touch judge, to paint the lines on the pitch that he would later patrol. Bloem's native country provided the most evocative individual delegate – Steven Van Zyl, the head coach of the South Africa team who works alongside the former Great Britain captain Garry Schofield, happens to be the nephew of Tom van Vollenhoven, the former St Helens wing.
But even the three-man delegation from Jamaica, who were returning to England after a popular appearance in last year's Headingley Nines, were pipped for sheer exoticism by Rabih El Masri. He is from Lebanon, where the game has maintained a presence since the appearance of a team drawn from the substantial Lebanese community in Sydney in the 2000 World Cup. But El Masri, who is unrelated to the record-breaking former Canterbury wing Hazem, is representing Palestine – even though he has never been permitted to visit the occupied territories.
"I am Palestinian, but a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon," said the 28-year-old, whose story is further complicated by the fact that he now runs a health club in the Alsace. "My grandfather left his house in the 1948 war and went to Beirut, but we have the papers from the Lebanese government to say we are Palestinian refugees. "When rugby league came to Beirut, I had been playing martial arts and Thai boxing, and I decided to try. In general, we can't represent Lebanon in other sports, only rugby league. After one month they chose me to go to an international game in Serbia – I felt good, I loved the game. I had a dream for a long time to present rugby league in the [refugee] camps. Life is hard there, it is poor, there's drugs. The values of rugby league represent courage, teamwork – and the boys are really very strong, one day you will see. "We have under-13s, under-16s and I already have a senior team who played against the American University team of Beirut. We were second in the under-16 tournament, to a Saudi team I think. We play as a Palestine XIII because we don't have the papers yet from the [Palestinian] Authority, but they know about us and are supporting us."
El Masri hopes that rugby league may even allow him to enter Gaza for the first time. "Palestinian refugees in Lebanon don't have the right to go back to Palestine – it is a big story at the moment, with the political negotiations with Israel. But I am trying to start with them." Remarkably, Palestinian rugby league already has a potential trailblazer – living in Hull. Ali Ibrahim, a 16-year-old wing who was born in Gaza, but moved to Yorkshire with his family four years ago, has already been selected in an England youth squad. "I have heard this, I need to meet him," said El Masri. For the game born in Huddersfield 116 years ago, these are interesting times.