Ukraine became the latest country to complete its tutor training programme under the RLEF’s three-year Technical Strategy, which is designed to train and qualify coach and match official tutors locally.

Phase 3 Coaching and Phase 2 Match Officiating were conducted concurrently in Kharkov, with four coach tutors and two match official tutors graduating as well as introducing five new coaches and nine new referees.

Danny McNeice oversaw the two-day match officials course, run by Ukrainian Federation of Rugby League tutors Alexandr Ivchenko and Denis Chekniev.

“They have a very strong development structure in place and have identified some excellent tutors. I have no hesitation in saying that the future for refereeing in the Ukraine is bright,” said McNeice, who had no hesitation in endorsing the tutors’ first locally qualified batch of referees.

The four Ukrainians coach tutors were Igor Urkin (Krasnoarmeysk), Vladimir Mazepa (Donetsk) and Sergei Kravchenko and Artur Martyrosyan (Kharkov).

“These steps were very necessary for us right now – before the start of the new season and to increase the quality of the championship,” said the UFRL president, Artur Martyrosyan. “I think we conducted it on a high level and now we can look to the future of preparing new rugby league coaches and match official personnel in our country."

RLEF Level 1 coaches: Egor Yaroshenko (Dnepropetrovsk), Velor Mesitskii (Simferopol), Vitalii Andriets (Lugansk), Svyatoslav Minenkov (Krivoy Rog) and Igor Shevtsov (Kharkov).

RLEF Level 1 match officials: Andrei Bashevskii (Kharkov), Igor Uraichik (Donetsk), Aleksandr Turnaev (Kharkov), Aleksei Shkol’nyi (Kharkov), Vladimir Loban’ (Kharkov), Viktor Ostapenko (Krivoy Rog), Vladimir Mashkin (Kharkov), Karina Obramyan (Rostov-on-Don, Russia) and Igor Urkin (Krasnoarmeysk).