The Ukrainian Federation of Rugby League has hosted two successful Level 2 courses in parallel in Kharkov. The twin activities, part of the EU-backed Training and Education Portal project, were led by RLEF Coach Manager Martin Crick and match official tutor Danny McNeice. The pair oversaw local educators and educator-candidates plus colleagues from Holland and Poland delivering the five-days of work in very hot conditions.

Eight candidates attended the Level 2 Match Official course, while seven locals completed the Level 2 Coach course. Two have already completed the professional development tasks (the acronym for these tasks is ‘CATO’) and are qualified, while five more will be qualified once they complete CATO. Of these, four - Gennady Vepryk, Volodomyr Krutovskyi, Volodomyr Radchyk and Evgen Zubritskyi - took a step closer to becoming qualified Level 1 Educators. They will now need to be assessed delivering a course to achieve that rating.

Both technical strands combined for sessions on winning the ruck, giving added insight into how referees and coaches interpret this important area of the sport, both on attack and defence. 

McNeice said: "Once again the individuals involved in the RLEF's development programme impress beyond expectations. UFRL educator Denys Cherniev showed a lot of improvement while Roman Bykhov was also very talented and is a good addition to the match official educator pathway." 

Ukrainian coach educator candidate Gennadiy Vepryk, who is also the national team coach, said, “I have taken part in several courses since 2012 and in my opinion this was the best in terms of the information, preparation and usefulness. Many thanks to Martin and Danny for their application. We are looking forward to further cooperation with the RLEF and our regional colleagues. Undoubtedly this event will give a powerful impetus to the development of rugby league in Ukraine.”

The TEP is a three-year, €723.000 investment into capacity building through good governance and technical training, funded by €466.000 from the EU’s Erasmus+ project and the remainder from the RLIF and five of its full members. It is intended to build the knowledge and skills of the RLEF’s 21 European members, divided into six regional clusters, through high quality training and mentoring, while granting opportunities to share experiences amongst fellow Europeans dedicated to rugby league development.