Latvia national rugby league team

Latvia

Badge of Latvia team
Governing body	Latvian Rugby League
Region	Europe
Captain	Olek Pala
RLIF ranking	34th
Colours
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, Kiev )

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.

For Latvian stats, news, team results and more visit Latvia's RLEF Page.

All-time results record

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

RLIF World Rankings
Official Rankings as of December 2015
Rank	Change	Team	Points
1		New Zealand	897.00
2		Australia	719.00
3		England	655.00
4		Samoa	280.00
5		France	209.00
6		Ireland	162.00
7		Fiji	147.00
8		Wales	132.00
9		Scotland	121.00
10		United States	102.00
11		Serbia	72.00
12		Italy	65.00
13		Canada	62.00
14		Papua New Guinea	60.00
15		Russia	46.00
16		Tonga	40.00
17		Belgium	40.00
18		Malta	32.00
19		Germany	28.00
20		Lebanon	27.00
21		Spain	26.00
22		Cook Islands	23.00
23		Ukraine	22.00
24		Greece	21.00
25		Denmark	20.00
26		Norway	19.00
27		Jamaica	16.00
28		Netherlands	15.00
29		Sweden	15.00
30		Czech Republic	14.00
31		South Africa	13.00
32		Niue	4.00
33		Hungary	2.00
34		Latvia	2.00
35		Morocco	0.00

Results

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

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

2017 Rugby League World Cup Qualifier

Main article: 2017 Rugby League World Cup qualifying § Preliminary play-off

On the 9th of 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. Unfortunately for the Latvians their home advantage didn't have any effect as they'd go down to the Spaniards by 20 points, ending their chance of participating in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.