RUGBY LEAGUE NATION

 

 

Foundation Year - 2003

International Team - New Caledonia Rugby League

Top level domestic competition - N/A

History - New Caledonia rugby league was born in 2003 when local rugby union clubs dissatisfied with the governing body defected to rugby league. This created much tension with the remaining club that stayed committed to union. Throughout the year and for the rugby league final the Union club booked out the local ground even though they had no team to play against.

In August 2003 New Caledonia travelled to Australia to play their first international rugby league game against Greece at Norford Park, Sydney. New Caledonia put in a respectable performance for a new league playing nation on tour against a Greek side who had many Australian players in their ranks. It took New Caledonia 32 minutes to cross the line but eventually Greece ran away with the game 26 - 10.

March 2004 saw the touring Greek side visit New Caledonia to assist with League development in the pacific area. In the one off game played at Paitai Stadium in front of over 1200 spectators, New Caledonia were no match for a Greek side with the likes of Steve Georgallis in the ranks. The final score was 56 - 8 to the Greeks.

In October 2004 New Caledonia entered the Pacific Cup competition. Unfortunately they were grouped with Samoa and American Samoa. New Caledonia suffered some heavy defeats and did not progress into the finals.

New Caledonia were scheduled to take part in the 2006 Pacific Cup. For unknown reasons they pulled out of the tournament one week before it was due to start. They were subsequently replaced by Tokelau.

Demitri Pelo who represented France in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup was originally from New Caledonia.

The pacific nation gets plenty of exposure to Rugby League via NRL and International games that are beamed into the Pacific via free to Air TV. The recent Rugby League World Cup will hopefully provide more funding to assist with the continued development of the sport in the pacific.

Dear Readers, If you have first hand knowledge of the current Rugby League situation in New Caledonia we would love to hear from you. Please email us at: webmaster@rugbyleagueplanet.com or join our international rugby league Forums at http://forums.rugbyleagueplanet.com and let us all know what's going on in your part of the world.

Oct 23rd American Samoa 62 - New Caledonia 6

Oct 20th Samoa 76 - New Caledonia 0

Mar 6th Greece 56 - New Caledonia 8

 

Aug 31st Greece 26 - New Caledonia 10