Around the World in 80 Minutes

This week has been another busy week in the Rugby League world with the latest world rankings coming out, more drama surrounding the UAE Rugby League and general news from the Rugby League world.

UAE FIASCO

We start off this week back in the UAE where slow progress has been made with the RLIF holding meetings with the UAE's General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare in regards to the recognition of Rugby League as a separate entity to Rugby Union.

At this stage nothing is known where the situation sits in regards to the fraud charges of the president of the UAERL although news broke during the week that the UAE Rugby Federation was advised to drop charges by World Rugby, the governing body of Rugby Union globally however the UAE Rugby Federation will not drop the charges.

**Late update** In a late change of events on Wednesday, there are reports that UAERL President Sol Mokdad has been released from jail.

RATINGS BONANZA?

In much better news, last week saw the latest Rugby League World Rankings released and the rankings have seen a change at the top as well as two debutants in the international rankings. The news broke during the week that New Zealand is now the number one ranked team in the world, with the Australians moving to second.

Looking more specifically at the rankings, two new countries have entered the rankings in the latest update with Pacific Island nation Niue debuting in the rankings in 32nd whilst The Philippines enter the rankings in 35th position, one ahead of Morocco.

In the latest rankings, there were eight teams who managed to climb in the rankings and they were:

• New Zealand (2->1)
• Canada (14 -> 13)
• Tonga (16 -> 15)
• Belgium (21 -> 18)
• Lebanon (23 -> 20)
• Malta (24 -> 23)
• Spain (28 -> 26)
• South Africa (31 -> 28)

Meanwhile the following nations all dropped in the rankings:

• Australia (1 -> 2)
• Serbia (13 -> 14)
• Russia (16 -> 15)
• Germany (18 -> 19)
• Norway (19 -> 21)
• Ukraine (20 -> 22)
• Greece (22 -> 24)
• Denmark (26 -> 27)
• Jamaica (27 -> 29)
• Czech Republic (29 -> 30)
• Sweden (30 -> 31)
• Hungary (32 -> 33)
• Latvia (33 -> 34)
• Morocco (34 -> 36)

RESULTS AROUND THE WORLD

On Saturday (16/5), Serbia scored their first ever victory over close rivals Russia with a 20-15 victory in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

The win was important for Serbia as they keep top spot in group B of the European Championships ahead of Russia, Italy and Ukraine, the top 3 of the group gain qualification to 2016 World Cup European qualifiers.

It was also a very important win because the Serbians have faced the Russians on six previous occasions with every match previously having been won by the Russians who are dominated all players from Lokomotiv Moscow or Vereya with the exception of key play maker Dmitry Bratko who comes from the Magi club also in Moscow.

Meanwhile across in the Middle East, Lebanon saw the conclusion of their season with the Immortals side scoring an impressive 32-22 victory over the Wolves after the Wolves took an 18-10 lead to Half Time.

Last week in recapping the international scores, I missed a match's result that was played on May 2, where Belgium defeated The Netherlands 60-12.

By the time the next edition is out (sometime in the next fortnight), there will have been just one international match played and that is between Sweden and Denmark in the Nordic Cup which will be played on the 24th.