Wood wants to build on Commonwealth foundation

Nigel Wood, in his role as chairman of the Rugby League International Federation, has praised the Rugby League Commonwealth Championships, held at Cumbernauld last month.

The Nines tournament was won by Papua New Guinea, and featured inspirational performances from the Under-19 teams of Wales, Cananda and Scotland too.

“The first ever Rugby League Commonwealth Championship did everything we had hoped for,” said Wood, who is also chief executive officer of the RFL.

“It brought together teams from almost every region of the Commonwealth for a fantastic festival of rugby that enabled players from the Pacific, the Americas, Africa and Europe to play against each other and socialise off the field.

“Congratulations to Papua New Guinea who were thoroughly deserving winners of the gold medals, and to the other seven nations for making it such a vibrant and well contested tournament.”

PNG beat Australia 22-8 in the final, and Wales beat Canada to claim the bronze medal. Broadwood Stadium, usually the home of Clyde FC, hosted the tournament, which was officially endorsed by the Commonwealth Games Federation.

Wood also hailed the contributions made by a whole host of people to the success of the tournament.

“We should also pay tribute to the officials, the volunteers and the supporters who all contributed to launching the Commonwealth Championships,” he added.

“I hope they can all look back on a wonderful weekend and think they were there at the start of something special and helped it run so smoothly.”

The next tournament will be played on Australia‘s Gold Coast in 2018. Plans are afoot to make it an Under-23 rather than Under-19s event.