2018 Rugby League European Championship B

The 2018 Rugby League European Championship B (also known as Euro B) was ninth edition of the Rugby League European Championship B and acted as the second phase of European qualifying to the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. The series involved three teams in pool play and took place in October 2018. The two highest ranked teams, Russia and Spain, advanced to the European play-off. In August 2019, Russia withdrew from the play-off tournament and were replaced by Serbia.^[1]

2018 (2018) European Championship B  ()
Number of teams	3
Host country	Europe
Winner	Russia (3rd title)
Matches played	3
Points scored	154 (51.33 per match)
Tries scored	29 (9.67 per match)
Top scorer	Aleksandr Lysokon (28)
Top try scorers	Aleksandr Lysokon (3) Romain Pallares (3)
Tournaments  < 2014–15 2020 >

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Russia	2	1	0	1	60	50	+10	2	Advance to third round
2	Spain	2	1	0	1	52	48	+4	2
3	Serbia	2	1	0	1	42	56	−14	2

Source: ERL

Fixtures

6 October 2018 15:00 CEST (UTC+02:00)

Spain	32–24	Russia
Tries: Pallares (3), Doutres (2), Franco, Puerta Goals: Franco (1/3), R. Garcia (1/1), Delgado (0/2), Olivares (0/1), Pallares (0/1)	Report	Tries: Danilov, Konstantinov, Leskov, Lysokon Goals: Lysokon (4/5)

Poliesportiu Quatre Carreres, Valencia^[2] Referee: Geoffrey Poumes (France)^[3] Player of the Match: Romain Pallares (Spain)

Team details

FB 9 Luc Franco WG 2 Dani Morales CE 3 Antonio Puerta CE 4 Alex Doutres WG 5 Hadriel Mehamed Gonzalez FE 16 Daniel Garcia HB 7 Romain Pallares PR 8 Carlos Font HK 1 Chris Lopez PR 10 Adria Alonso SR 11 Anthony Delgado SR 12 Kevin Aparicio LK 15 Raul Simo (c) Interchange: BE 14 Aitor Romero BE 17 Juan Mudarra BE 18 Rafael Garcia BE 19 Miguel Olivares Coach:   Darren Fisher FB 1 Iustin Petrushka WG 2 Ilia Danilov CE 3 Igor Abramov CE 4 Boris Voloskov WG 5 Andrey Lavrushin FE 6 Aleksandr Lysokon HB 7 Denis Tyulenev PR 8 Sergei Konstantinov (c) HK 9 Aleksandr Naumov PR 10 Kirill Bozhko SR 11 Dmitrii Leskov SR 12 Vladislav Lesnikov LK 13 Ivan Troitskii Interchange: BE 14 Igor Chuprin BE 15 Vyacheslav Eremin BE 16 Andrey Perin BE 17 Dmitrii Tarasenkov Coach:   Denis Korolev

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Serbia were without their Australian-based players, David Andjelić, Brandon Janjić, Jonathan Kress, and Ilija Radan, along with head coach Brett Davidson due to VISA issues.^[4] The Serbian Rugby League allege that Russia's Association of Rugby League Clubs did not provide the necessary paperwork for VISA removal.^[5]

13 October 2018 15:00 MSK (UTC+03:00)

Russia	36–18	Serbia
Tries: Lysokon (2), Konstantinov, Leskov, Lesnikov, Orlov, Zagoskin Goals: Lysokon (4/8)	Report	Tries: Jašari, Keglić, Trifunović Goals: Vo. Dedić (3/4)

Fili Stadium, Moscow^[2] Attendance: 300^[6] Referee: Liam Moore (England) Player of the Match: Aleksandr Lysokon (Russia)

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20 October 2018 14:30 CEST (UTC+02:00)

Serbia	24–20	Spain
Tries: Janjić, Kress, Milutinović, Stevanović, Zogović Goals: Vo. Dedić (2/5)	Report	Tries: Delgado, Franco, Simo Goals: R. Garcia (4/5)

Makiš Stadium, Belgrade^[2] Attendance: 150 Referee: Tom Grant (England) Player of the Match: Luc Franco (Spain)

References

1. Caplan, Phil (25 August 2019). "Serbia replace Russia in Rugby League World Cup qualifiers" (Press release). Rugby League European Federation. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
2. "Nations Gear Up For European Championship B". RLEF. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
3. "L'arbitrage français vers l'international!" (in French). FFR13. 7 June 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
4. "Russia and Serbia Test match goes ahead". RLEF. 12 October 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
5. "Srbija ruši Španiju za nastavak kvalifikacija" (in Serbian). srbijasport.net. 19 October 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
6. "Russia vs. Serbia - Russia 36 def. Serbia 18".