2017 Rugby League World Cup qualification (Europe play-off)

The 2017 Rugby League World Cup Europe qualification play-off was a rugby league match that was played on 4 November 2016 at Leigh Sports Village in England. The match decides who was the final European country to qualify for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup, with Italy defeating Russia 76–0.

2017 (2017) World Cup qualification (Europe play-off)  ()
Leigh Sports Village hosted the match.
Italy Russia (FIRL) (RRLF) 76 0
1 2 Total ITA 46 30 76 RUS 0 0 0
Date	4 November 2016
Stadium	Leigh Sports Village
Location	Leigh, England
Man of the Match	Terry Campese (Italy)
Referee	Chris Campbell (England)
Attendance	450
Broadcast partners

Background

On 3 October 2014, the 2017 Rugby League World Cup qualifying competition was announced with three more qualification places being announced for European countries after England, France and Scotland had already qualified courtesy of reaching the 2013 World Cup knock-out stage.

In the final round of European Qualification there were two groups of 3 with the countries that topped both pools advancing straight into the 2017 World Cup while the teams placed second headed into a one-off play-off match held at the Leigh Sports Village to see who will be the 14th and final country to qualify for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.

Route to match

Italy

Italy qualified for the play-off match after finishing second in group A. They were almost in no need of a play-off match after being 40 minutes away from causing a shock result over Wales in Monza.

Opposition	PF	PA	Date	Venue	Attendance
Serbia	62	14	22 October 2016	Makiš Stadium, Belgrade	1,037
Wales	14	20	29 October 2016	Stadio Brianteo, Monza	839

Russia

Russia qualified for the play-off match after finishing second in group B.

Opposition	PF	PA	Date	Venue	Attendance
Spain	40	6	15 October 2016	Fili Stadium, Moscow	427
Ireland	16	70	29 October 2016	Carlisle Grounds, Bray	867

Squads

Italy

Head coach: Cameron Ciraldo

Italy named a 19-man squad.

Club	Player
Blacktown Workers	Dean Parata
Brianza Tigers	Patrik Ziliotti
Cairns Brothers	Joel Riethmuller
Canterbury Bulldogs	Joe Tramontana
Cronulla Sharks	Jayden Walker
Hull Kingston Rovers	Terry Campese, Josh Mantellato
Lézignan Corbieres	Christophe Calegari
Lions Brescia	Giuseppe Pagani
Mackay Cutters	Gavin Hiscox
Newcastle Thunder	Gioele Celerino
Northern Pride	Justin Castellaro, Ryan Ghietti, Col Wilkie
North Queensland Cowboys	Kieran Quabba
Oldham	Richard Lepori
Sacramento Express (RU)	Mirco Bergamasco
St. George Illawarra Dragons	Shannon Wakeman
South Wales Ironmen	Chris Vitalini
Townsville Blackhawks	Brenden Santi
Windsor Wolves	Ryan Tramonte
Wyong Roos	Chris Centrone

Russia

Head coach: Denis Korolev

Russia announced their 29-man squad on 19 September 2016, which was later reduced to a 19-man squad. Similar to Italy, Russia was unchanged from the initial World Cup qualifiers.

Club	Player
CSKA Moscow	Kirill Kosharin
Dinamo	Viacheslav Eremin, Andrey Kuznetsov
Ivanovo White Sharks (RU)	Ivan Troitskii
RC Lokomotiv Moscow	Vadim Buryak, Leonid Kalinin, Maxim Tsinkovich
Nara	Petr Botnarash, Mikhail Burlutskii, Sergey Gaponov, Anatoly Grigorev, Sergei Konstantinov, Aleksandr Lysokon, Maksim Suchkov, Denis Tiulenev, Vladimir Vlasyuk, Nikolay Zagoskin
Moscow Fili	Anton Iunisov, Iustin Petrushka
Moscow Storm	Dmitry Bratko, Igor Chuprin, Vadim Fedchuk

Match

Details

2017 Rugby League World Cup Europe qualification play-off

4 November 2016 20:00 GMT (UTC+0:00)

Italy	76–0	Russia
Tries: Castellaro (2), Cerruto (2), Lepori (2), Wilkie (2), Campese, Celerino, Centrone, Santi, Wakeman, Walker Goals: Campese (10/14)	Report (RLIF)

Leigh Sports Village, Leigh Attendance: 450 Referee: Chris Campbell (England) Player of the Match: Terry Campese (Italy)

FB 1 Mason Cerruto WG 2 Chris Centrone CE 3 Justin Castellaro CE 4 Colin Wilkie WG 5 Richard Lepori FE 6 Terry Campese HB 7 Ryan Ghietti PR 8 Shannon Wakeman HK 9 Dean Parata PR 10 Gavin Hiscox SR 11 Jayden Walker SR 12 Brenden Santi LK 13 Joel Riethmuller Substitutes: BE 14 Joseph Tramontana BE 15 Ryan Tramonte BE 16 Giuseppe Pagani BE 17 Gioele Celerino Coach: Cameron Ciraldo

FB 2 Maksim Suchkov WG 14 Vadim Tsynkovich CE 3 Leonid Kalinin CE 1 Nikolay Zagoskin WG 5 Vadim Buryak SO 6 Aleksandr Lysokon SH 7 Denis Tiulenev PR 16 Vadim Fedchuk HK 9 Vladimir Vlasyuk PR 10 Ivan Troitskii SR 11 Andrey Kuznetsov SR 12 Mikhail Burlutskii LF 13 Viacheslav Eremin Substitutes: BE 8 Sergei Konstantinov BE 17 Igor Chuprin BE 18 Dmitry Bratko   Coach: Denis Korolev

Post-match

With the win Italy became the 14th, and final, team to qualify for the 2017 World Cup.