Czech Republic national rugby league team

Czech Republic
Badge of Czech Republic team
Team information
Governing bodyCzech Rugby League Association
RegionEurope
Head coachLadislav Cintler
CaptainJarda Stribro
Most capsMichal Priputen (10)
Tomas Holovsky (10)
IRL ranking24th
Uniforms
First colours
Team results
First game
United Kingdom British Student Pioneers 29–8  Czech Republic
(Prague, Czech Republic; 2006)
Biggest win
 Czech Republic 30–4 Germany 
(Olomouc, Czech Republic; 2009)
Biggest defeat
 Germany 96–0 Czech Republic 
(Hochspeyer, Germany; 2010)

The Czech Republic national rugby league team was established to broaden the skills of the rugby union team. The team has competed in a number of competitions and hosted the Slavic Cup in 2006.

History

The Czech Association of Rugby League (CZARL) began life in early 2006, under the guidance of former Czech rugby union international Milan Mrtýnek and Englishman Iain Sellers.

The squad's first training session, in February 2006, was held in an indoor basketball hall because of an extremely fierce Czech winter. From these modest beginnings, the Czech Republic team, with support from the Rugby League European Federation, struggled to play four full games in their debut season.

Perhaps inevitably, given the unfamiliarity of the game, the Czech Republic lost all four matches, and the margins of defeat were not narrow. The Czechs played their first two games against the touring British Student Pioneers team. A 29–2 loss in Prague was followed by a less encouraging 34–2 defeat in Olomouc.

This was followed by the first away trip to Rotterdam to face the Netherlands Tasman team, where the newcomers were narrowly defeated 34–28. In their final game of the season, also in Prague, the Czechs were beaten 36–28 by Serbia, in the inaugural "Slavic Cup" match between the two countries.

In 2007 The Czech Republic played in the European Shield tournament against the Germany and Serbia. This saw them travel to Belgrade to play Serbia and Germany travelled to Prague. Both games were lost. The Serbia game doubled again as a Slavic Cup match. In 2008 the Czech Republic team once again competed in the European Shield along with Italy and Germany, with a domestic competition in u16, u18 and Senior level.

In 2011, the Czech Rugby League Association was admitted to affiliate membership of the Rugby League European Federation after reforming its governance.[1]

Competitive record

The following is a summary of tournaments and results for the Czech Republic National Rugby League Team.

European Championship

European Championship Record
Year League Round Position Pld W D L
2021 D Final 2nd 2 1 0 1
2023 B TBA out of 6 Qualified

IRL Rankings

Official rankings as of December 2025
Rank Change Team Pts %
1 Steady  Australia 100
2 Steady  New Zealand 82
3 Steady  England 74
4 Steady  Samoa 56
5 Steady  Tonga 54
6 Steady  Papua New Guinea 47
7 Steady  Fiji 34
8 Steady  France 24
9 Steady  Cook Islands 24
10 Steady  Serbia 23
11 Steady  Netherlands 22
12 Steady  Ukraine 21
13 Steady  Wales 18
14 Steady  Ireland 17
15 Steady  Greece 15
16 Steady  Malta 15
17 Steady  Italy 11
18 Steady  Jamaica 9
19 Increase 1  Poland 7
20 Increase 1  Lebanon 7
21 Increase 1  Norway 7
22 Decrease 3  United States 7
23 Steady  Germany 7
24 Steady  Czech Republic 6
25 Steady  Chile 6
26 Increase 1  Philippines 5
27 Increase 1  Scotland 5
28 Decrease 2  South Africa 5
29 Increase 1  Canada 5
30 Decrease 1  Brazil 3
31 Increase 1  Morocco 3
32 Increase 1  North Macedonia 3
33 Increase 1  Argentina 3
34 Increase 1  Montenegro 3
35 Increase 4  Ghana 2
36 Decrease 5  Kenya 2
37 Increase 3  Nigeria 2
38 Decrease 2  Albania 1
39 Decrease 2  Turkey 1
40 Decrease 2  Bulgaria 1
41 Increase 1  Cameroon 0
42 Increase 1  Japan 0
43 Increase 1  Spain 0
44 Decrease 3  Colombia 0
45 Steady  Russia 0
46 Steady  El Salvador 0
47 Steady  Bosnia and Herzegovina 0
48 Steady  Hong Kong 0
49 Steady  Solomon Islands 0
50 Steady  Vanuatu 0
51 Steady  Hungary 0
52 Steady  Latvia 0
53 Steady  Denmark 0
54 Steady  Belgium 0
55 Steady  Estonia 0
56 Steady  Sweden 0
57 Steady  Niue 0
Complete rankings at
www.internationalrugbyleague.com

See also

References

  1. ^ Caplan, Phil (27 October 2011). "RLEF formally admits four new members". www.rleague.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.