U19s European Championships: Match officials, technical education plans announced

European Rugby League has announced the match officials squad for next month’s European Under 19s Championship which will take place at the CREPS Font Romeu high performance facility. 

As with previous events, technical education and development will also be firmly on the agenda, supported by International Rugby League as part of its technical education project, with a “match officials booster” project taking place within the tournament programme.

Nectarios Tsakalos (Greece), Joseph Rago (Norway), Kemoy Whyte (Jamaica), Petar Randjelović (Serbia) and Cody Kuxmann (USA) are part of the IRL funded delegation who will gain experience officiating throughout the week as well as returning to their respective countries having undertaken the IRL Level 2 Match Official course and working through CATO+, the IRL’s professional development system, to prepare them to become Level 1 Educators in their own countries.

“We’re very pleased to be partnering with European Rugby League to support the deployment of the match officials but to be able take advantage of bringing a diverse range of future leaders together in order to upskill them to help us meet our technical education objectives in their respective countries,” commented David Butler, IRL’s Head of Membership & Competitions. “Being able to create a full-time learning environment over the space of eight days and to give both on-field and off-field learning experiences is a valuable opportunity for the project and those in attendance will benefit significantly.”

In addition to the technical education delegation, France will have three representatives at the tournament; Quentin Boissonnade, a regular Super League touch judge, Calvin Galandrin, who recently took charge of the Elite 2 final and Matéo Roca, an aspiring youngster who is already touch judging in Super XIII. England has two officials present in Lucas Seal, a regular Championship referee and touch judge, and Liam Breheny who has just made his Super League touch judging debut, whilst Craig Davies returns for his second consecutive U19s Championship after representing Wales at the 2024 event in Belgrade. Spain’s Andrew Pilkington also makes a return having been present at the first edition in 2018, and will assist in a leadership capacity.

The squad will be managed throughout the week by Stéphane Vincent, FFRXIII’s Head Of Match Officials and a current Super XIII referee. Vincent will be assisted by Ireland’s Steve Hogan, one of IRL’s most experienced match official tutors and a veteran of all three previous tournaments

“I am very proud to have been appointed to manage the match officials squad for the European Rugby League U19s Championship,” added Stéphane Vincent. “I am looking forward to working with Steve, Andrew and all of the officials to get the best out of them on the field, but also to encourage them to work together off the field to get the best out of each other too. It is going to be an intensive week, with 15 games taking place, but there is plenty of time for the team to share their knowledge and to help each other to learn during the week and to enjoy the experience. We’re especially looking forward to hosting all of those travelling from outside of France and giving them a taste of refereeing in a new country and hopefully creating memories for life.”

The tournament commences on Sunday 12^th July, with round 2 being played on Wednesday 15^th July and round 3 on Saturday 18^th July.