Greece's incredible journey to their Rugby League World Cup debut

Greece's debut in the Rugby League World Cup will be the pinnacle of a bizarre odyssey — which included dodging police raids and secret matches at midnight. Their qualification campaign was deemed illegal on their own soil, forcing organisers to take drastic measures to ensure training sessions and matches went ahead.

Ad «There were times that we were afraid the police were going to come and stop the game,» admitted Grigoris 'Greg' Koutsimpogiorgos, who made his national team debut in 2015 and has lived every minute of this incredible journey. Rugby LeagueBumper crowds watch hosts and defending champions get off to a flyer34 MINUTES AGO «On one occasion we even started a game 30 minutes after midnight, because the pitch was unavailable earlier.

On other occasions, we had to train without lights as we couldn't find a pitch anywhere else to train.» Rugby league in Greece was deemed illegal because of a dispute over the sport's ruling body. While the Greek Rugby League Association was recognised by the International Rugby League as the governing body in the country, the Greek government didn't.

It recognised the Hellenic Modern Pentathlon Federation as the controlling body — and took action against any matches the GRLA arranged. Which is why, in 2018, only five people knew in advance the venue of a European Championship fixture against Malta for fear police would intervene- and one official posted decoys on social media.

And why, months later, they had to complete their qualification campaign by moving home matches to London. It was only in August the GRLA (now the GRLF) was recognised by the Greek government, smoothing the final touches of their preparations for the World Cup which begins with a Group A game against France