Latvia national rugby league team

Latvia
Team information
Governing body	Latvia Rugby League
Region	Europe
Head coach	Steve Leonard (GBR)
Captain	Jānis Zuments
IRL ranking	53rd
Uniforms
	First colours
	First colours
Team results
	First international
	Estonia 38 - 54 Latvia ; (21 October 2007, Tallinn)
	Biggest win
	Estonia 4 - 74 Latvia ; (8 August 2009, Tallinn)
	Biggest defeat
	Ukraine 112 - 0 Latvia ; (18 September 2010, Kyiv )

The Latvia national rugby league team was established in 2008 to represent Latvia at rugby league football, and initially competed in the European Bowl, for fourth-tier developing nations. They beat Estonia in a two-game series and therefore won the inaugural tournament after Ukraine could not gain visas to travel. In 2009 they reached the second place after losing to Ukraine and defeating Estonia. In 2010 they played in the European Shield, losing to Russia and Ukraine. After a hiatus of several years, Latvia will return to international competition on May 9, 2015 for the first match of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup qualifying process, taking on Spain in a one-off knockout match to determine the final participants in the 'European C' section.

History

On 9 May 2015, Latvia and Spain kicked off proceedings for the qualifying fixtures for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup qualifying. It was a do or die match with the winner advancing to a qualifying group stage, already containing Malta and Greece, while the other would lose their chance of qualifying for their first ever World Cup. The Latvians' home advantage had no effect as they went down to the Spaniards by 20 points, ending their chance of participating in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.^[1]

Results

Overall

Team	First Played	Played	Win	Loss	Points For	Points Against	Last Meeting
Estonia	2007	4	4	0	238	62	2009
Ukraine	2009	2	0	2	6	152	2010
Russia	2010	1	0	1	4	54	2010
Spain	2015	1	0	1	12	32	2015
TOTAL		8	4	4	260	300

World Cup

World Cup record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	D
2017	Failed to qualify
Total	0 Titles	0/13	0	0	0	0

Results

Opponent	Points	Date	Venue	Report
Estonia	54 - 38	2007-10-21	Tallinn
Estonia	48 - 10	2008-06-28	Tallinn	Report
Estonia	62 - 10	2008-08-03	Riga	Report
Ukraine	6 - 40	2009-07-24	Riga	Report
Estonia	74 - 4	2009-08-08	Tallinn	Report
Russia	4 - 54	2010-07-31	Riga	Report
Ukraine	0 - 112	2010-09-18	Kyiv	Report
Spain	12 - 32	2015-05-09	Riga	Report

IRL Rankings

IRL Men's World Rankings v t e
Official rankings as of 30 June 2024
Rank	Change	Team	Pts %
1		Australia	100
2		New Zealand	82
3		England	80
4		Samoa	67
5		Tonga	49
6	1	Fiji	47
7	1	Papua New Guinea	46
8		France	28
9		Lebanon	22
10		Cook Islands	20
11		Serbia	19
12		Netherlands	17
13		Italy	15
14	1	Greece	15
15	1	Malta	14
16		Ireland	14
17		Wales	13
18		Jamaica	10
19		Scotland	9
20		Ukraine	7
21		Czech Republic	7
22		Germany	6
23	3	Chile	6
24		Poland	6
25	3	Norway	6
26	1	Kenya	5
27	4	Philippines	5
28	3	South Africa	4
29		Nigeria	4
30		Ghana	4
31	2	United States	4
32	4	Montenegro	4
33	2	Brazil	3
34	2	Turkey	3
35	7	North Macedonia	3
36	2	Bulgaria	3
37	2	Cameroon	2
38	1	Spain	2
39	1	Japan	1
40	1	Albania	1
41	5	Canada	1
42	2	Colombia	1
43	2	El Salvador	1
44	1	Morocco	1
45		Russia	0
46	2	Sweden	0
47	2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0
48	2	Hungary	0
49	3	Argentina	0
50		Hong Kong	0
51	3	Solomon Islands	0
52	5	Niue	0
53	1	Latvia	0
54	1	Denmark	0
55	6	Belgium	0
56	1	Estonia	0
57	6	Vanuatu	0
Complete rankings at INTRL.SPORT