Lebanon’s international players have begun training for the summer tour to Canada, where they will play an international in Toronto on 11 August. The local players will be met in Canada by Cedars Head Coach David Bayssari and the Australian-based members of the touring party, in what will be the first Lebanon squad to play with a blend of Lebanese- and overseas-based players where the latter are the minority.

The domestic players have been under the watchful eye of tour manager Remond Safi. “It’s great to see a lot of new young faces moving up in the ranks our international squad. This will be a stern test as the Canadians have plenty of big match experience to fall back on,” he said. “We will have our work cut out."

The squad has been stripped of some experience through injuries to Rudi Hachache and possibly Mazen Knio and the unavailability of Immortals trio Bahige Saridar, Ahmad Fadlallah and Ibrahim Ballout and Jounieh stalwart Youssef Helou, but the local players will have the opportunity to learn from the addition of some of the Cedars’ most skilful players such as James Boustani and Jamie Clark.

Lebanon Head Coach David Bayssari commented: “The squad that will land in Toronto should provide a stiff test for Canada. We are under no illusions. The Canadians are an extremely tough side and will be hard to handle, but I now our boys will be ready by game time and I look forward to having all the players under the one roof again. I can’t wait.”

The tour is another event on Lebanon's own 2012 global rugby league tour: Lebanon's under-16s and under-18s national teams have played Saudi Schools Select in Lebanon; their under-18s will play in Europe later this summer; their under-20s, Liban Espoir, will play in Morocco and at home to English Lions under-18s; and in addition to the Canada match Lebanon is due to play an international against the Cook Islands in October.

Pictured: Jamie Clark will lend direction from dummy half.

LEBANON TRAIN-ON SQUAD
Cliff Nye (Auburn Warriors), Robin Hachache, Adam Itani, Mazen Knio (Immortals RLFC), Michael Khoury, Youssef Helou, Pierre Nasr (Jounieh RLFC), Jamie Clark, Chris Saab (Lithgow), Mohamed Akar, Kamel Ali, Adib Kahi, Paul Khauli (Redbacks RLFC), Michael Elias, Jonathon Fenianos, Riad Khoury, Sami Mansur, Michael Moubarak,  Samer Nehme, Gaeton Osman,  Aziz Smaily, Allen Soultan (Tripoli RLFC), James Boustani (Wentworthville), Raymond Finan,  Monir Finan, Nemer Saliba (Wolves RLFC)