Rugby League Deutschland will host the first European Youth Rugby League Festival this weekend, with the Under-16 sides of Scotland, Russia and Serbia travelling to Baden-Württemberg in the south of the country for the four-match event. Germany will be fielding a youth representative side for the first time with players drawn from Heidelberg, Callbach and Hochspeyer. The RFL's Dave Raybould has been seconded to Germany to assist with the 25-strong squad's technical preparation. They face Scotland in their opening tie in Hochspeyer on Friday 19th August, kick off 5pm, while Russia gets the festival up and running against Serbia at 3pm.
Serbian coach Slavisa Zekic is in confident mood following a thorough preparation at the Serbian Football Federation’s five-star facility outside Belgrade. “After five gruelling days in excellent conditions the young Serbian team is well prepared,” he said. “We played against the Russians almost a year ago and lost. Now we hope to do much better because we have played a number of home games in the past year, gaining us valuable experience.”
Russia has put a similar amount of effort into its preparation for the festival with a five-day training camp in Vereya, south of Moscow and RARLC director Sergei Kashutin defiantly stated, “We know the Serbians but we are not in the mood to let them through to the final.”
Former Castleford and Scotland full back Jason Flowers leads his charges for the first time in a bid to start a successful international coaching career with the SRL. Flowers, who won three caps for Scotland including playing in the 2000 World Cup against New Zealand Maoris and Samoa, takes charge of products of the inaugural Scotland player development centre, which was launched earlier this year. Their squad is drawn from nine clubs ranging from Aberdeen to Gateshead.
The culmination of the tournament is on Sunday in Heidelberg when the winners of the first matches play off for the title and the losers battle for the third and fourth place rankings.
GERMANY
Schultz Kevin (Callbach Raccoons); Bökes Ali Sürer, Dörzbacher Marco, Frohmüller Kevin, Genthner Thomas, Greipel Loris, Günal Hakan, Hoffmann Jonas, Jansen Kai, Klein Kevin, Klein Tillmann, Krumwitz Marcel, Marin Luis, Mirrell Sahli, Polte Wolfgang, Rambow Florian, Rettwitz Paul, Schäfer Simon, Selinger Oliver, Spies Vincent, Van Skywark Leif, Von Tresckow Adrian, Strang Oliver (Heidelberg); Kratz Jonas, Scherrer Sebastian (Hochspeyer Sharks)
RUSSIA
Golubev Mikhail, Ismailov Timur, Kalimulin Ruslan, Kanevskiy Oleg, Kashirskiy Artem, Kucherenko Vladislav, Nagornyy Pavel, Syzranov Dmitriy (RLC NARA); Kuklin Anton, Sachkov Yury, Belov Vladislav (RLC Nevskaya Zastava); Schidaniya Roma, Shaydurov Egor, Volkov Andrey (RLC Treshers); Lazer Denis, Loginov Andrei, Safronov Roman, Sidelnikov Mikhail (RLC Vеrеyа)
SCOTLAND
Ewan Grindley, Gavin Reed, Mitchell Scott, Carwyn Walker (Aberdeen Spartans); George Watt (Deeside); Gary Doherty, Jason Haggarty, Fraser Mctaggart, Stephen Sleery (Easterhouse Panthers); Gregor Ramsay, Calum Rennie, Craig Reid (Falkirk Romans); Connor Edwards, Andrew Pollock (Fife); Sinclair Matthews (Gateshead); Daniel Godfrey, Cameron Hughes (Moray Titans); Ryan Mckeown, Kristofer Walker (Victoria Knights); Craig Allan (Wallsend Eagles)
SERBIA
Vasilije Jovanovic, Aleksandar Karimanovic, Luka Lazarevic, Luka Milatovic, Masan Milatovic, Uros Radulovic, Nikola Stosic, Nikola Vlahovic, Stefan Zecevic (Dorcol); Vojin Miletic (Radnicki Nova Pazova); Stefan Jovanovic, Lazar Micic, Andrej Mora, Marko Pavkovic, Miodrag Tomic (Red Star Belgrade); Nemanja Pesic, Igor Petrovski, Dusan Vasilijevic (Smederevo); Veton Barjaktari (Stari Grad)