Rugby league in Russia
Encyclopedia
Rugby league
is a team
sport
in Russia
. The Russian Rugby League Federation
(RRLF) is the governing body of rugby league in Russia.
These clubs were Kazan Arrows
, Dinamo Moscow and the champions for the past eight years, Lokomotiv Moscow.
Russian Ministry of Sports order number 21 dated January 20, 2010 expelled the Rugby League from the State Register of Sports of Russia.
In February a new president of the RRLF was elected, Alexander Eremin. Mr Eremin, the board members and employees of the RRLF are currently investigating the potential for the continuation of Rugby League in Russia with various government, civic and sports organizations, in particular the ministry of Sports and Rugby Union of Russia
After the turmoil of the RRLF losing clubs and players, Edward Taturian has now caused a split with the Rugby League Federation, to potentially form an Association of Rugby League Clubs.
The following clubs joined the ARLKR association:
1. Nevsky Gate
2. Vereyskaya Bears
3. Thrashers
4. North Moscow
5. Nara
6. Otradnoe
7. Spartak-Losinka.
(In 1991, Edgard Taturian, the former coach of the Soviet Rugby team, split from the Russian rugby union and took over some teams to found the Russian Rugby League. The game grew and became known as the Russian Rugby League Federation.)
The Russian Championship (or Russian Super League or Championship of Russia) consisted of 6 teams in the 2008 season:
Dinamo Moscow and St Petersburg Nevskaya Zastava started the season but failed to complete it. Saint Petersburg Lesteh and Volgodonsk Navy-Sphere entered the cup but did not participate in any league.
Championship NFRR-13
Premier League
Major League
Major League teams are divided into groups on a geographical basis
Central Group
Southern Group
Volga-Ural Group
North-West Group
and military institutions of the North-west district
However Russian teams have not played in the challenge Cup since 2009 due to the funding crisis in Russian Rugby League.
prior to World War 2, but died out. A Russian delegation attended Dewsbury
's 1973 English Championship win and suggested that exhibition games be held in Eastern Europe to gauge interest.
Rugby league returned in the late 1980s thanks largely to the efforts of Edgar Taturyan (there are different spellings of his name due to problems converting Cyrillic script to the Latin alphabet). Edgar Taturyan helped develop the new game with players from Moscow
's rugby schools and supervised the game's expansion outside of the capital.
Early success for Russian rugby league came in the form of one of the Locomotive Rugby Football Club's junior team of 1987 which was sent to England
to compete in a series of matches. Despite being expected to lose every game to their far more experienced opponents, the youngsters won all five of their matches. This proved that Russia could take to rugby league as well as any other country.
Taturyan's work allowed rugby league to become established; more importantly it was established before the onset of the chaos that accompanied the dissolution of the USSR, which would have made it nearly impossible to establish a new sport in Russia after 1991. Luckily by that time the Russian Rugby Football League (RRFL) had already been established.
Mr Maslov, at the time a member of the Russian Rugby Union (RRU), watched a game of rugby league on BBC TV and was instantly converted. With that, Maslov and his friend and President of the Russian Rugby Union, Edgar Taturyan, formed the RRFL.
On the teams' return all three took part in the first RRFL championship, between the 3 teams which had toured England as well as those based in Kazan, Alma-Ata and Krasnoyarsk. Two of the 3 initial teams went on to play in the inaugural final, which was staged in Tiraspol
, Moldova. The occasion attracted in excess of 5,000 spectators.
The next season saw a dramatic increase in the number of teams competing in rugby league with the national competition expanding to 7 teams from all over the country. The teams which competed in 1991 were Moscow Magicians, Tiraspol, Moscow Spartak, Red Arrows, Lions of St Petersburg, Kazan, Stars of Asia and Moscow Bears. It was Tiraspol's year as they beat the Magicians 26-16 in the final played in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Following Tiraspol's RRFL final win in 1991, the Moscow Magicians took a stranglehold on the domestic competition for the next 4 years winning as many titles. It was then the turn of Strela Locomotive for 2 years, followed by the Kazan Arrows who have become the most successful team in Russian history.
From the early formation of the league to 1993 the competition was going strong with junior participation on the rise and teams of Kazakhstan
and Georgia
trying to gain admittance to the league.
and Moscow Locomotive made history in December 2001 by becoming the first Russian teams to feature in the European Rugby League Challenge Cup
, one of the most prestigious international rugby league tournaments in the world. Since 2001 Russian clubs have travelled to England to take part in the tournament.
Moscow club Dinamo entered the cup in the 2nd round of the 2004 competition and became the first Russian team to achieve victory in any match of the challenge cup since the Russians' first appearance in 2001. The same year Locomotive joined Dinamo when entering the competition in the 3rd round.
Only weeks after an internal row between the Dinamo and Locomotive clubs in Moscow led to the exit of national coach Bob Bailey, there now seemed to be pressure from Locomotive on Kamaldinov's presidency of the RRFL. Locomotive were of the opinion that they and not Kamaldinov should run the RRFL. The 29th of January 2005 was pencilled in as the day that would decide Kamaldinov's future with the RRFL. On word of the unrest in Russia, the RLEF representative flew out to the January 29th meeting in an effort to restore harmony in the RRFL.
The meeting ended badly and unfortunately led to Kamaldinov's and Vladmimir Dolgin's resignations from the RRFL as president and chairman respectively. Following Kamaldinov's departure it was feared he would leave rugby league altogether; in what could have been the crushing blow to the game in Russia, Kamaldinov withdrew all support for the game as financier to the federation, its clubs and even went as far as to move club Dinamo to a rugby union sevens league.
Despite all that happened early in the year, the RRFL went ahead with its annual championship, including the youth world cup, which was thought by many not to go ahead. The jury is still out as to whether or not rugby league in Russia can survive its latest crisis.
The Russian Rugby League supports the game in Moscow, but in the provinces there is little money or infrastructure for the game: it relies on the enthusiasm of coaches and players alone. There is plenty of talent, and the players are keen to make both domestic and international tours, and also play overseas in order to raise their standards.
The inclusion of Rugby Sevens in the Olympics has claimed Rugby League’s first casualty with Russia’s Premier League side, Locomotive Moscow choosing to switch back to rugby for the 2010 season.
Locomotive switched rugby to union in 1991 because the players wanted to be paid, and since 2003, Locomotive, has been virtually unbeatable.
Locomotive won the Premier League every year from 2003 to 2009.
Kazan Arrows is also going across to Union, both Locomotive and Kazan will have junior Rugby League teams.
Locomotive approached the Russian Rugby Union and asked to be included in the national Sevens competition, the Russian RU said that it could only happen if Locomotive also played in the Rugby union.
NTV Plus Sport
broadcasts live rugby league
matches from the European Super League
competition.
The Russian Bears represent Russia
in international rugby league tournaments and other rugby league fixtures.
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
is a team
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...
sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The Russian Rugby League Federation
Russian Rugby League Federation
Russian Rugby League Federation is the governing body for rugby league in Russia. It was founded originally in 1978 mainly as a governing body for Moscow based teams but became the head body for all of Russia in 1986. The Russian Rugby League Federation became affiliated to the Rugby League...
(RRLF) is the governing body of rugby league in Russia.
Olympic Status of Rugby Union Sevens and the expulsion of Rugby League from the State Register of Sports of Russia
By mid 2009 the three major clubs of Russian Rugby League had moved over to Rugby Union as a result of government pressure to achieve results in rugby union sevens, newly designated as an Olympic Sport.These clubs were Kazan Arrows
Kazan Arrows
Kazan Arrows, sometimes called Strela Kazan, are a rugby league and rugby union club from Kazan, Tatarstan in Russia. They were formed in 1989 and currently play in the Russian Championship, the top-tier of rugby league in Russia....
, Dinamo Moscow and the champions for the past eight years, Lokomotiv Moscow.
Russian Ministry of Sports order number 21 dated January 20, 2010 expelled the Rugby League from the State Register of Sports of Russia.
In February a new president of the RRLF was elected, Alexander Eremin. Mr Eremin, the board members and employees of the RRLF are currently investigating the potential for the continuation of Rugby League in Russia with various government, civic and sports organizations, in particular the ministry of Sports and Rugby Union of Russia
After the turmoil of the RRLF losing clubs and players, Edward Taturian has now caused a split with the Rugby League Federation, to potentially form an Association of Rugby League Clubs.
The Association of Rugby League Clubs of Russia (ARLKR)
2010 began with no clear framework or competition, within this context the old figurehead Taturyan established the Association of Rugby League Clubs of Russia (ARLKR) seemingly independent of the RRLF.The following clubs joined the ARLKR association:
1. Nevsky Gate
2. Vereyskaya Bears
3. Thrashers
4. North Moscow
5. Nara
6. Otradnoe
7. Spartak-Losinka.
(In 1991, Edgard Taturian, the former coach of the Soviet Rugby team, split from the Russian rugby union and took over some teams to found the Russian Rugby League. The game grew and became known as the Russian Rugby League Federation.)
Russian Championship
Main Article: Russian ChampionshipThe Russian Championship (or Russian Super League or Championship of Russia) consisted of 6 teams in the 2008 season:
- LocomotiveRC Lokomotiv MoscowRC Lokomotiv Moscow is a professional Russian rugby football club based in Moscow, which from 2010 will field teams in both rugby league and rugby union. The club is one of the oldest in Russia. Originally a club for those who worked on the railways, they participated in the first USSR rugby union...
- Moscow - ArrowsKazan ArrowsKazan Arrows, sometimes called Strela Kazan, are a rugby league and rugby union club from Kazan, Tatarstan in Russia. They were formed in 1989 and currently play in the Russian Championship, the top-tier of rugby league in Russia....
- Kazan - Vereya - Moscow Region
- Crystal - Rostov-on-Don
- Kosmos - Moscow Region
- Legion - Kharkiv (Ukraine)
Dinamo Moscow and St Petersburg Nevskaya Zastava started the season but failed to complete it. Saint Petersburg Lesteh and Volgodonsk Navy-Sphere entered the cup but did not participate in any league.
Championship NFRR-13
Premier League
- Star - RVSN (Serpukhov)
- Kubinka (Moscow Region)
- Nizhegorodets (Nizhny Novgorod)
- Arsenal (Tula)
- RHZB (Kostroma)
- CSK Cosmos (Moscow region)
- Avtomobilist (Ryazan)
- Svyazist (Ryazan)
- VDV (Ryazan)
- WU-CVM (Moscow)
- MOSVOKU (Moscow)
- Vereya BearsVereya BearsVereya Bears are a rugby league team from Vereya, Moscow Oblast. The club was first formed in 1995 and now play in the Russian Championship. Home matches are played at the Vereya Stadium.-Formation:...
(Moscow region)
Major League
Major League teams are divided into groups on a geographical basis
Central Group
- Finance (Yaroslavl)
- Voronezh
- Tver
- Iskra (Smolensk)
Southern Group
- Stavropol
- Novocherkask
- Rostov on Don
- Armavir
- Krasnodar
Volga-Ural Group
- Penza
- Kazan
- Wolski
- Chelyabinsk
- Saratov
North-West Group
- VIFK (St. Petersburg)
- Mozhaisky Military Academy (St. Petersburg)
and military institutions of the North-west district
Challenge Cup
Two teams each year take part in the British Challenge Cup, along with four teams from France including Les Catalans, although the challenge cup is not considered to be a 'European Cup', more a domestic competition in the UK that invites these teams into the early rounds.However Russian teams have not played in the challenge Cup since 2009 due to the funding crisis in Russian Rugby League.
History
Rugby league was played in the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
prior to World War 2, but died out. A Russian delegation attended Dewsbury
Dewsbury Rams
Dewsbury Rams RLFC is a professional rugby league club based in the West Yorkshire town of Dewsbury. They are arguably most famous for becoming Champions in 1972-73 after finishing the regular season in 8th place. In the playoffs they beat Featherstone away, Warrington away, and then Leeds in the...
's 1973 English Championship win and suggested that exhibition games be held in Eastern Europe to gauge interest.
Rugby league returned in the late 1980s thanks largely to the efforts of Edgar Taturyan (there are different spellings of his name due to problems converting Cyrillic script to the Latin alphabet). Edgar Taturyan helped develop the new game with players from Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
's rugby schools and supervised the game's expansion outside of the capital.
Early success for Russian rugby league came in the form of one of the Locomotive Rugby Football Club's junior team of 1987 which was sent to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to compete in a series of matches. Despite being expected to lose every game to their far more experienced opponents, the youngsters won all five of their matches. This proved that Russia could take to rugby league as well as any other country.
Taturyan's work allowed rugby league to become established; more importantly it was established before the onset of the chaos that accompanied the dissolution of the USSR, which would have made it nearly impossible to establish a new sport in Russia after 1991. Luckily by that time the Russian Rugby Football League (RRFL) had already been established.
Mr Maslov, at the time a member of the Russian Rugby Union (RRU), watched a game of rugby league on BBC TV and was instantly converted. With that, Maslov and his friend and President of the Russian Rugby Union, Edgar Taturyan, formed the RRFL.
Russian Rugby Football League
After the initial formation of the RRFL many of Maslov and Taturyan's RRU associates changed allegiances and joined the administration of Russia's new fledging sport. Prior to the commencement of the RRFLs inaugural rugby league championship in 1990, 3 teams, Moscow Magicians, Leningrad and Tiraspol were sent to England to learn the finer points of rugby league.On the teams' return all three took part in the first RRFL championship, between the 3 teams which had toured England as well as those based in Kazan, Alma-Ata and Krasnoyarsk. Two of the 3 initial teams went on to play in the inaugural final, which was staged in Tiraspol
Tiraspol
Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic . The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River...
, Moldova. The occasion attracted in excess of 5,000 spectators.
The next season saw a dramatic increase in the number of teams competing in rugby league with the national competition expanding to 7 teams from all over the country. The teams which competed in 1991 were Moscow Magicians, Tiraspol, Moscow Spartak, Red Arrows, Lions of St Petersburg, Kazan, Stars of Asia and Moscow Bears. It was Tiraspol's year as they beat the Magicians 26-16 in the final played in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Following Tiraspol's RRFL final win in 1991, the Moscow Magicians took a stranglehold on the domestic competition for the next 4 years winning as many titles. It was then the turn of Strela Locomotive for 2 years, followed by the Kazan Arrows who have become the most successful team in Russian history.
From the early formation of the league to 1993 the competition was going strong with junior participation on the rise and teams of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
and Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
trying to gain admittance to the league.
Challenge Cup history
Kazan ArrowsKazan Arrows
Kazan Arrows, sometimes called Strela Kazan, are a rugby league and rugby union club from Kazan, Tatarstan in Russia. They were formed in 1989 and currently play in the Russian Championship, the top-tier of rugby league in Russia....
and Moscow Locomotive made history in December 2001 by becoming the first Russian teams to feature in the European Rugby League Challenge Cup
Challenge Cup
The Challenge Cup is a knockout cup competition for rugby league clubs organised by the Rugby Football League. Originally it was contested only by British teams but in recent years has been expanded to allow teams from France and Russia to take part....
, one of the most prestigious international rugby league tournaments in the world. Since 2001 Russian clubs have travelled to England to take part in the tournament.
Moscow club Dinamo entered the cup in the 2nd round of the 2004 competition and became the first Russian team to achieve victory in any match of the challenge cup since the Russians' first appearance in 2001. The same year Locomotive joined Dinamo when entering the competition in the 3rd round.
Cross roads of 2005
One of the best years for the game in Russia had to be 2004, thanks mostly to Akhmet Kamaldinov, then president of the RRFL. Kamaldinov also took on role of financier to not just the federation, but the game of rugby league in Russia, providing money, referees’ kit and development work for the league and equipment for all of the RRFL clubs as well as funding and organising major international events such as the Victory Cup. The game in Russia which had achieved steady gains since his arrival with junior numbers up and the national league looking strong.Only weeks after an internal row between the Dinamo and Locomotive clubs in Moscow led to the exit of national coach Bob Bailey, there now seemed to be pressure from Locomotive on Kamaldinov's presidency of the RRFL. Locomotive were of the opinion that they and not Kamaldinov should run the RRFL. The 29th of January 2005 was pencilled in as the day that would decide Kamaldinov's future with the RRFL. On word of the unrest in Russia, the RLEF representative flew out to the January 29th meeting in an effort to restore harmony in the RRFL.
The meeting ended badly and unfortunately led to Kamaldinov's and Vladmimir Dolgin's resignations from the RRFL as president and chairman respectively. Following Kamaldinov's departure it was feared he would leave rugby league altogether; in what could have been the crushing blow to the game in Russia, Kamaldinov withdrew all support for the game as financier to the federation, its clubs and even went as far as to move club Dinamo to a rugby union sevens league.
Despite all that happened early in the year, the RRFL went ahead with its annual championship, including the youth world cup, which was thought by many not to go ahead. The jury is still out as to whether or not rugby league in Russia can survive its latest crisis.
Popularity
Compared to most other sports rugby league is a minority sport with most likely fewer than 5,000 registered players. The players lacked finesse during the early days due to a lack of expert coaching and development, which initially lead to a poor image for the rugby league. However, the game has grown steadily since its formation in the 1980s despite a chronic lack of funds that has hindered the game's expansion and development. It is also not clear how well rugby league is distinguished from rugby union in Russia, as there seems to be some confusion between the two codes.The Russian Rugby League supports the game in Moscow, but in the provinces there is little money or infrastructure for the game: it relies on the enthusiasm of coaches and players alone. There is plenty of talent, and the players are keen to make both domestic and international tours, and also play overseas in order to raise their standards.
The inclusion of Rugby Sevens in the Olympics has claimed Rugby League’s first casualty with Russia’s Premier League side, Locomotive Moscow choosing to switch back to rugby for the 2010 season.
Locomotive switched rugby to union in 1991 because the players wanted to be paid, and since 2003, Locomotive, has been virtually unbeatable.
Locomotive won the Premier League every year from 2003 to 2009.
Kazan Arrows is also going across to Union, both Locomotive and Kazan will have junior Rugby League teams.
Locomotive approached the Russian Rugby Union and asked to be included in the national Sevens competition, the Russian RU said that it could only happen if Locomotive also played in the Rugby union.
Media
Starting in 2009Super League XIV
The 2009 Super League season is the fourteenth season of rugby league since the Super League format was introduced in 1996...
NTV Plus Sport
NTV Plus Sport
NTV Plus Sport is Russia's first dedicated sports channel. It is a part of the NTV Plus network....
broadcasts live rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
matches from the European Super League
Super League
Super League is the top-level professional rugby league football club competition in Europe. As a result of sponsorship from engage Mutual Assurance the competition is currently officially known as the engage Super League. The League features fourteen teams: thirteen from England and one from...
competition.
The national team
Main Article: Russia national rugby league teamRussia national rugby league team
-2008 World Cup Qualifying:In 2006 Russia were involved in Europe Round One, defeating Netherlands national rugby league team and Serbia national rugby league team to finish second and keep their World Cup dream alive. They then went through to Europe Round Two in Europe Pool Two with Ireland and...
The Russian Bears represent Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in international rugby league tournaments and other rugby league fixtures.