Greece and Ukraine men will face each other in a double-header of games this weekend for the Unity Cup. The matches will be played in Athens at the Gkorytsa Stadium, Aspropygos on Saturday (tomorrow) with a 4pm kick off local time, and on Sunday at the Goudi Municipality Stadium, kick off 4pm.
The winners will be decided by an aggregate score, with both senior internationals counting for world ranking points.
It will be Ukraine’s first senior men’s fixture since 2021’s 54-18 defeat at the hands of Serbia in Euro B, and in the wake of the Russian invasion since. For Greece, it will be their second and third outings this year after losing 40-6 to Serbia in Athens in May, and preparation for their trip to Norway next weekend.
Greece have named 23 players for the two games with seven in line to make their debuts; Stefanos Morellas, Petros Bafaloukos, Nectarios Tsakalos, Georgios Avramidis, Nick Tuliatu, Vasilis Vaiopoulos, and Stefanos Eskioglou. Jordan Meads will captain the side.
Men’s head coach Steve Georgallis, who has been running coaching clinics in the country in the lead up, commented: “We have some new players in our squad that hail from the domestic competition that will get the opportunity to represent Greece.
“Our participation in last year’s World Cup has given our domestic league a huge boost and that was evident in the opening week of the competition last weekend. I had the opportunity to look at all our players across the nine clubs in Greece and I came away impressed with their skill and willingness to learn. Ukraine pushed us all the way when we played them in 2018 and we look forward to welcoming them to Athens.”
Ukraine have named 21 players to make the journey, with the bulk from champions Kharkiv Legion XIII.
Ukraine RL president, Artur Martyrosian, noted: “Ukraine Rugby League is very grateful for the organization of this Unity Cup. Our players have really missed international rugby league and are really looking forward to this series.”
GREECE SQUAD
Stefanos Eskioglou (AEK), Aris Dardamanis, Stefanos Bastas, Petros Bafaloukos (Aris Eagles), Nectarios Tsakalos, Georgios Arvamidis (Athens Raiders), Aris Koulizakis, Ioannis Nake (Attica Rhinos), Vasilis Vaiopoulos (Attica Springboks), Robert Tuliatu (Avignon), Jordan Meads (Barbarians), Liam Sue-Tin (Bulimba), Vasili Tsikrikas (Castleford), Panos Varypatis (Glyfada), Stefanos Morellas, Nic Flocas (Ipswich), Myles Gal (Nambour), Dimosthenis Kartsonakis, Alexandros Aliu, Nikolaos Bosmos, Konstantinos Katsidonis (Rhodes Knights), Sam Stratis (South Eastern), Nick Tuliatu (South Newcastle)
UKRAINE SQUAD
Liubomyr Beznoshchuk, Maksym Dulia, Oleksandr Levandovskyi (Carpathian Trinity), Yevhen Checheta, Anatolii Hrankovskyi, Volodymyr Karpenko, Taras Kolisnyk, Volodymyr Mashkin, Vadym Milanko, Oleksandr Shcherbyna, Dmytro Semerenko, Oleksandr Skorbach, Oleksandr Syvokoz, Mykhailo Troian, Yevhenii Trusov, Ihor Yurkin (Kharkiv Legion XIII), Vasyl Kravchuk (Khmelnytskyi Eagles), Orest Adamyk, Ostap Hryshchenko, Valentyn Korchak (Lviv Tigers), Danylo Vedler (Rivne Giants)