WORLD CUP
QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT

The opening match on the road to the southern hemisphere for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup takes place this Friday, 28th April, when Holland face Russia in Den Haag in the first tie of the ?European Preliminary Qualifying Tournament?.

Both nations have announced their opening squads for the clash with the hosts, who have included five new caps in their initial 17, confident of putting up a spirited show against their more experienced opponents.


Nederland Squad:

1. Rudy Stanford Smyth - Rugby Sparta - Caps 5

2. Jammie Groeneweg - Hoek van Holland -1

3. Joel Barrett - Sheffield Hallam - 3

4. Ronald v / d Broek ? Haagsche - 4

5. Kees Foxon - Nottingham Outlaws - 3

6. Jorik Moree ? Rotterdam - 5

7. Aaron de Jagger - Huddersfield Underbank Rangers (Capt) - 3

8. Phil Parkinson - Nottingham Outlaws - 2

9. Chris Hodgett - Hemel Stags - 0

10. Bevan Williamson ? Rotterdam - 5

11. James Howitt - Coventry Bears - 1

12. Jason Brygroms - Rotterdam - 0

13. Raymond den Engelsman - Hoek van Holland - 2

14. Johnny Qua - Rotterdam - 5

15. Sjorte Neiboer - WC Haaglanden - 0

16. Pieter v / d Hast - WC Haaglanden - 0

17. Benjamin Blom - Sassenheim - 0


Plus three players to be selected from the game between the Nederland Tasman (Dutch development team) and Bamber Bridge to come into the senior squad



Russian Squad:

MANAGEMENT:

Klebanov Evgeny

Osipov Oleg

Cherenkov Sergey

Drynkov Igor

Bardeev Alexander


PLAYERS:

Dumalkin Andrey

Nechaev Viktor

Ovchinnikov Roman

Baskakov Valentin

Gvozdev Yan

Grigoryan Artem

Dobrynin Sergey

Zagoskin Nikolay

Korolev Denis

Vinogradov Georgy

Koltykhov Andrey

Fedchuk Vadim

Iliassov Robert

Safiullin Adel

Smirnov Oleg

Vlasyuk Vladimir

Ososkov Eduard

Sokolov Oleg

Bychkov Sergey

Konstantinov Sergey

Veteran Robert Iliassov commented, "We?ll be preparing for each match of the World Cup as if it is the most important match in our life."