Eddy Pettybourne named Coach of the Year in Serbia

Steven Hughes
Eddy Pettybourne

Former NRL forward Eddy Pettybourne has won the Serbian Coach of the Year award after helping Red Star Belgrade to the Serbian title.

Pettybourne has also played for Wigan, Limoux and Toulouse over a varied career. He signed for Red Star following the postponement of the 2021 North American Rugby League season. He was due to play for Brooklyn.

Red Star claimed a fifth straight Serbian Super League title in 2021, they beat city rivals Partizan 30-18 in the final.

The Belgrade side are also in the final of the Balkan Super League, after a 120-0 win over Locomotive Sofia in the semi-finals.

Pettybourne linked up with Red Star in June, and has enjoyed a successful stint in the Balkans.

International Rankings Announced: Serbia up to eighth

In what was has been a really good year for rugby leagie in Serbia, it ended with them in eighth in the World Rankings released by the RLIF.

However, defeats against Scotland and Greece back in 2019 saw Serbia miss out on the World Cup. The competition will be taking place next year, after it was postponed due to the pandemic.

On the rankings, IRL chairman Troy Grant said:“On the one hand it is good to have enough fixtures played in 2021 to run the world rankings.

“On the other hand, there is some volatility in some of the placings due to the skewed nature of who was able to play fixtures and who wasn’t.

“The over-riding principle of any sport’s ranking system is to see endeavours on the field reflected on the ladder; that is certainly evident here.

“We all hope and expect that during 2022 and into the World Cup; we will see a significantly greater number of international matches played; and this will, in turn, be reflected back in the world rankings.”

Read More: Australia fall to fourth in world rankings ahead of World Cup

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