The Annual General Meeting of International Rugby League (IRL) has confirmed the elevation of Nigeria Rugby League Association (NRLA) and Rugby League Federation of Ghana (RLFG) to affiliate membership.
Both nations have undergone a rigorous process to satisfactorily demonstrate the growth of their organisation and their capacity to deliver rugby league programmes.
These are the first two nations in the Middle East – Africa (MEA) region to achieve affiliate membership and further illustrates the progress being made by the sport in the region.
NRLA Vice-President, Ade Adebisi said:
 
“We were pleased to receive the votes confirming NRLA as an Affiliate Member of International Rugby League.
 
“This is motivating news for all of us at NRLA. Our target is to qualify for the world cup in 2025 and achieve full membership status. I would like thank Remond Safi and our entire team for making this a reality.”
 
Kareem Captan, RLFG General Secretary commented:
 
“This marks a significant milestone in our journey towards participation in RLWC2025 and obtaining full membership. 
 
“It reflects the ardent dedication of our team and players and the gracious and enduring support we have been so fortunate to receive from our sponsors, partners, and stakeholders and we thank them all.”
The AGM, which was attended virtually by 35 nations, also heard an update from Chair Greg Barclay on the progress made by the international federation during a very disrupted and challenging 2020.
He highlighted IRL’s compliance with World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the appointments of the first ever Head of Judiciary and a Match Official Manager, the work of several advisory groups, including women and girls, classifications, wheelchair rugby league and the laws advisory panel, plus the work on the re-brand and roll-out of the website and digital members' portal.
IRL chief executive officer, Nigel Wood summed up the meeting saying:
“It was great to have so many members attend and participate in the AGM in such trying circumstances. We would like to thank them all and also congratulate our friends in both Nigeria and Ghana on their successful applications to become affiliate members.
“Quite rightly, members focussed on IRL’s response to the problems created by the global pandemic. They were satisfied that we have been able to manage the international federation’s affairs prudently to ensure that the impact on our support for members is as limited as possible.
“We are all looking forward to an improved 2021 and a World Cup to remember for the most positive of reasons.”
 
For PR and media requests please contact:
Niel Wood
media@intrl.sport
​

TODAY IN SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY LEAGUE HISTORY
10 NOVEMBER 1923 – TANK VAN ROOYEN WIGAN DEBUT
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Gert Wilhelm [George] ‘Tank’ Van Rooyen was the first Springbok to move to British rugby league after the First World War. He played for three clubs, Hull Kingston Rovers, Wigan and Widnes, despite not switching codes until he was aged almost 30. He was born in Steynsburg, and played for Johannesburg Pirates and Transvaal, as well as appearing in two tests against the All Blacks for the Springboks in their 1921 tour of Australia and New Zealand. In September 1922 he joined Hull KR, and despite making 25 appearances for the club in his first season, missed out on playing in their team that beat Huddersfield 15–5 in the Championship final. After a further 10 games for Hull KR in the 1923-24 season, he was transferred to Wigan and made his debut on 10 November 1923 against Wigan Highfield at Central Park.
The legendary Wigan full-back Jim Sullivan, who played for Wigan from 1921 to 1946, remembers van Rooyen as “the most fabulous character I have known in rugby league”. He remembered a “great giant of a man... solid granite... the strongest man I’ve ever seen apart from the old music hall acts. There were times when I thought he was more than human.”

​Some of the feats Sullivan could remember included carrying a bag of cement under each arm with ease, shifting snow from the pitch with a wooden plank 12 feet by seven inches; single-handedly lifting a horse out of manhole and hoisting a broken down van off its wheels.
He made 32 appearances in his first season for Wigan, scoring four tries. And honours came his way, with a Lancashire League medal and Challenge Cup winner’s medal. He played in every round of the Challenge Cup, and in the final Wigan beat Oldham comfortably at Rochdale Hornets’ Athletic Ground. Wigan won 21–4, and their main concern was whether the massive crowd could be kept off the pitch

​Flashback Friday
David Barends – from Elim to Bradford
David Barends was one of only a small group of non-white South Africans to play rugby league in Britain. He was born in the town of Elim, a small village near Cape Agulhas in the Overberg region of the Western Cape where community life strongly centred on the Moravian Church. A part of the Boland rugby community, Elim with early clubs such as Rock Roses, is a traditional rugby town. At the beginning of the 20th century, the regional clubs which included Caledon Pirates, and Progress of sister-town, Genadendal, played under the auspices of the Caledon Rugby Union which was succeeded by the Southern Rugby Union, an affiliate of the then South African Coloured Rugby Football Board.
David learned his rugby at primary school and further refined his skill at nearby Emil Weder in Genadendal, one of the few black high schools in the rural Western Cape rural at the time. He moved to Cape Town after finishing school and joined the Progress Rugby Club under the City & Suburban Rugby Union and according to the available information also represented the latter union as a winger in interprovincial competition. After a period, he left to join the Roslyn club under the Western Province Rugby Union which he represented in the Rhodes Cup competition. On the 24 August 1970, he made his debut for the elite squad and national team of the South African Rugby Union, the successor of the former SA Coloured Rugby Football Board.  Their opponents, in what was billed as the “Fifth Test”, was the African Springboks of the South African African Rugby Football Board in terms of the racial designations of the time. These tests were used as an alternative to full representative honours since apartheid prohibited the inclusion of black players into the all-white Springbok-side under the South African Rugby Football Board and who regularly played against the national side of other countries.
Barends’ debut test, coincided with the tour of the 1970 All Blacks - the first which saw the inclusion of Maori’s. The played at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town was arranged to showcase the quality of Black rugby to the New Zealand visitors. In addition it was planned for the All Blacks to be introduced to the players before the game. Further, Dr. Danie Craven and the Cape Town-based Springboks of the SA Rugby Board were invited to attend the game.
 
In order to facilitate this process, the Department of Community Development gave permission for White South Africans to attend the game. Tickets for this encounter therefore went on sale at Logans Sports shop in Cape Town for Whites and at the Green Point Track for Coloureds and Blacks. The All Black team, however, never turned up. The SARU’s side won the ​encounter by 17-6 with David Barends who afterwards was to leave South Africa to play professional rugby in England, scoring two famous tries.
 
Through the collective efforts of Ivor Dorrington and Leeds sports promoter, Jim Windsor, Barends was able to join Wakefield Trinity for a sign-on fee of £1000 sterling. After scoring two tries on debut, his place in the league ranks was assured allowing him to settle down and in the end, spent three seasons at the club while refining his game and polishing his craft. Having served time with his first club, he contracted with York RLFC. After another four productive years, he signed with Bradford Northern in 1977. During this period, he made 202 first class appearances and scored 70 tries to establish him as one of their most potent and iconic players and was suitably rewarded in 1979 with selection for Great Britain in the series against Australia. David Barends in the process became the first player not of British origin to play for the Lions. He played 16 times, including the first two tests against Australia, and scored 10 tries. Although the Lions were successful outside the test matches, Australia won the test series 3–0. David’s debut was in a 35–0 defeat in the first test in Brisbane, although he did have a try disallowed. He also played in the second test in Sydney, which Great Britain lost 24–16.

TODAY IN SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY LEAGUE HISTORY
31 OCTOBER 2011
Leonard Michael Anthony (Len) Killeen

On this day, nine years ago, Len Killeen, to date the only South African to won the much-coveted Lance Todd Trophy in a rugby league final, passed away. Killeen, formerly of Swifts Rugby Football Club in Uitenhage in the Eastern Province, signed with St. Helens in 1962 and went on to become a fantastic points-scorer and match-winner supreme, one of the stars of the club’s four trophy season in 1966. On three occasions, he completed the regular league season as the top scorer. After playing against Liverpool City in a pre-season match, he made his debut against Salford on 18 August. Killeen scored 25 tries in 27 matches in his first season, and was only beaten by fellow-South African Tom van Vollenhoven, who finished on 33. Killeen really came to the fore in 1965–66. With Tom van Vollenhoven’s scoring starting to decline, with only 18 tries, Killeen ended up as top try scorer and goal kicker in the game, with 32 tries and 120 goals from 44 appearances for 336 points – 22 less than the previous season.
In that season’s Challenge Cup Final at Wembley against Wigan, Len firmly inked his name into the annals of rugby league history. Following sterling contributions in the run-up to the final such as scoring all the points in the Saints’ semi-final against Dewsbury – two tries and two goals –in the club 12–5 victory, the Wembley Final was to be the crowning moment of his career. On Saturday 21 May 1966, in front of a crowd of 98,536, Killeen scored a try, three penalties and two conversions – 13 of Saints’ 21 points in their 21–2 win. This sterling performance was crowned with Len winning the Lance Todd Trophy as the Man of the Match.
 
The said trophy was introduced in 1945–46 and named in memory of Lance Todd, the New Zealand-born player and administrator, who was killed in a road accident during the Second World War. The trophy's winner is selected by the members of the Rugby League Writers' Association present at the game. The first winner of the trophy was Wakefield Trinity Centre, Billy Stott in 1945–46. St. Helens' Sean Long in 2006 became the first player to win the Lance Todd Trophy three times, having won in 2001 and 2004. Five players have won the trophy twice: Warrington's Gerry Helme in 1949–50 and 1953–54; Wigan's Andy Gregory in 1987–88 and 1989–90; and Martin Offiah in 1991–92 and 1993–94; St. Helens' Paul Wellens in 2007 (jointly) and 2008; Hull FC's Marc Sneyd in 2016 and 2017. Sneyd and Wellens are the only players to win the award in consecutive finals.
 
Killeen was not only the third St. Helens player to win the award, but was also the 21st recipient of this famous award. In addition, he was only the second overseas player to win the trophy, after Ces Mountford and the first winger to do so.