International Rugby League

views from Norway (Part 1)

Warren Heilig 18/1/2010

Head of Development - Rugby League Norway

Hello to all my League loving friends,

My name is Warren Heilig and I am the Head of Rugby League in Norway. I have taken the the time to start writing a few opinion articles on the state of International Rugby League. The articles I write will hopefully be something many of you might be interested in knowing and also make readers think a little differently to whatever pre-concieved ideas they may have floating around in their heads. Let me begin by saying that negative attitudes will always get their wish.

To me rugby league has far too many pecimists (not sure on the spelling in that one but you get my drift). I hear far too often in league circles, and circles of other codes (but, don't worry I will have plenty to write about that in the next couple of issues) about what is wrong with rugby league, who is at fault and how it should be fixed. I will steal a line out of the Will Smith movie "Hitch" when he takes a date to Stanton Island and says "you'll never know where you are going, until you know where you have been". Well let's just have a look at just where we have been.

In 2000 Rugby League tried to host a rugby league world cup and it was to most "a failure". I still remember now seeing the likes of Russia, Cook Islands, Fiji and The Maori battling it out in a mudbath similar to the ones that the well to do would pay thousands for. After that "so-called debacle" people said rugby league will never be able to reach a global audience and it was only a sport for stupid northerners in England and bogans in Australia.

About a year or 2 after that I got an invite to stop playing QLD Cup and to have a few seasons in the USA. I took up the challenge and within a month had packed my bags and surfboards from the sunny shores of the Gold Coast to the chilly winters of Phillidelphia. This is certainly no normal route for a young rugby league player, but hey I can always say that I was a part of it when it was first starting to blossom. After damaging my knee a few years later (while playing for the Tomahawks in Sydney and trying to side step Anthony Mundine, I guess he really is the man) I found my self wondering about what to do next.

When I was well enough to run again I firstly went to Brothers Rugby Union in Brisbane as it was just up the road from where I was living at the time. Needless to say I lasted a month and got a bit bored of it and decided to try and have a go at getting into a league club again. I made some enquiries and l recieved answers from 3 coaches interested in taking me on. The first was from Gateshead, from Tyne and Wear. Not exactly a rugby league heartland at all but they did once have a superleague club so it was a definate possibility to see myself trying out the famous Newcastle nightlife. The second came from right out of left field. The Vereya club In Russia. Yep, I was considering a move to chilly Moscow to continue my pursuit in a rugby league career. After alot of discussions with my father the move was not a safe option he felt on that I turned the offer down. Just when I thought I was packing my bags for Newcastle, the then coach of London Skolars Latham Tawhai (now assistant coach of Quins RL) gave me a chance to move to London and play with the struggling Skolars squad.

Well I knew a few guys who moved to London and they said it was a great city to live in, so a few months later I was convincing my girlfriend Silje, at the time who is Norwegian (now my wife) that she should come with me. After some initial stumbling blocks we made a move to the bustling streets of London. Well needless to say I got eaten alive by the big city, and bid a hasty retreat 2 years later from the hustle and bustle to the capital city of Norway, Oslo.

Oslo only has around 500 000 people living in it. Quite a big difference from London in size, culture and of course language. After being here a while and playing with the local rugby union club I thought it about time that these people find out just what rugby league is and just what it is like to play. So last year I started up Rugby League Norway. After 1 year we have 3 clubs now playing league in a domestic competition this year plus our national team will be playing in the Euro Bowl Tournament. We have also done alot of work in schools by signing up 236 students to play in a rugby league nines tournamnt at the end of April. These are all promising signs for our sport in Scandinavia.

Anyway, the reason I decided to write a basic biography about my life in rugby league for my first opinion story is because this sort of rugby career was before now exclusive to rugby union. Through my association of bringing rugby league to Norway I have met many others doing the same from all over Europe in such places like Serbia, Ukraine, Latvia, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Wales, Scotland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lebanon, Morroco, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jamaica, Catalonia, South Africa, Pakistan and most recently Khazakstan. I believe I was probably one of the first of many who will inevitably take this route in rugby league, but one thing is for sure (and I am living proof) that thanks to the internet and budget airlines rugby league has prospered beyond anybody's wildest dreams since 2000 and anybody who thinks negative about our sport and its direction is only speaking out of fear, be it fear for their own clubs and players or fear from other codes.

If anybody told you after the 2000 world cup that rugby league is going to increase in popularity that much that it will triple the amount of countries playing it and the participation numbers would be growing worldwide year on year you would have been laughed out of the bar you told the punter in. But look at it as it is right now! In 10 years look how far we have come, and I for one cannot wait for the next update in 10 years to see where we are at but my prediction is it will be so self evident you guys won't need me to write stories about the success of International Rugby League.

Stay tuned next month as I go a little bit deeper into what is happening with our game on a global scale.

Keep on Working away, Warren Heilig.

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