Limehurst Lions, under the watch of coach Lee Flaherty, were on duty at the World Cup warm-up match between Wales and Lebanon

THE boys and girls of Limehurst Lions, under the watch of coach Lee Flaherty, were on duty at the World Cup warm-up match between Wales and Lebanon at Heywood Road, Sale.

 

They are pictured here, looking smart in their club kit, forming a guard of honour as the teams leave the dressing rooms.

 

Said Lee: "It was a great trip for them. They love everything about rugby league and, with lots of others who were not in this World Cup party, they are taking Limehurst Lions from strength to strength.

 

"We now have six different age-group squads and our under-10s, who play in the North-West Counties youth league, have won 22 games on the run. 

 

"Numbers are growing all the time and the kids off the estate love nothing better than watching Roughyeds at the Vestacare and doing duties like flag-bearing. After all, most of us live on the club's doorstep don't we."

 

Coached by the famous Aussie, Michael Cheika, a 55-year-old who has coached the Wallabies and is now in charge of the Argentina Rugby Union side, Lebanon won 38-22 and looked a good side.

 

John  Kear's Welsh squad included two brothers from Australia, James and Oliver Olds, the former from Valleys and the latter from Souths Logan, both in Queensland.

 

The pulling power of the World Cup was seen by the presence in the main stand of their Mum, Liz, who had travelled from Bridgend to watch her sons play for the country of their birth.

 

"They were in school together in Bridgend with two more Welsh players, Ben and Rhys Evans," said Liz. "Fancy, four lads from the same class playing for Wales. It's fantastic."

 

Sitting alongside her were a father-and-son twosome from Colwyn Bay, who were clearly steeped in rugby league -- hardly surprising since Dad was born in Oldham and was reared on the fabulous fifties team at Watersheddings.

 

The night before, only a few miles away at the A J Bell Stadium, we saw the community and the professional arms of the sport come together as one when the amateur lads of the England under-19s squad, including Oldham lads Scott Parnaby, Callum Murphy and Dylan Turner, paraded the European Championship Trophy they won so gloriously by beating France in the final in Italy.

 

It happened during half-time at the World Cup warm-up match between England and Fiji, which England won 50-0.

 

Pre-match and outside the stadium we bumped into former Roughyeds and now Higginshaw player Ben Heaton and his family; Lee Turner, proud dad of Dylan; and, among other Oldham fans, Derek Tunney of Cleveleys, who uses public transport but who rarely misses a Roughyeds game home or away. How's that for loyalty ?

 

Inside the ground we were sitting close to a party from Burnley -- family friends of Herbie Farnworth, the 22-year-old England centre from Blacko, near Burnley, who was inspired by the Burgess boys to fly to Australia to see if he could fulfil a boyhood dream to play in the NRL.

 

He was once an Academy soccer player at Manchester United, but he gave all that up at the age of 14 to wave goodbye to Mum and Dad in Blacko and to head off to Queensland with the sole intention of making it big with Brisbane Broncos.

 

The World Cup , which starts this Saturday up in Newcastle, is the pinnacle event in international rugby league. Like no other form of the game, players compete with the pride of their nation at the heart of every performance.

 

This year, more teams than ever before will compete for the World Cup with four groups of four competing in 17 stadia across England.

 

Eight quarter-finalists from the last World Cup in 2017 qualified automatically and the other eight nations were decided by a qualification process based on global regions and determined by international competition.

 

Our World Cup is one of the longest-running in world sport. It was first suggested by France in the 1930s, but it wasn't until 1953 that the International RL Board (IRLB) accepted the French proposal.

 

It was first held in 1954 with only four nations -- Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and France. Huddersfield's Dave Valentine, a Scotsman, lifted the trophy after Britain's defeat of France in the final.

 

Since then, Australia have dominated the world, winning 11 of the 15 series with the other four going to GB (three times) and New Zealand (one). Take away the Kiwis win in 2008, and the Aussies haven't been beaten since 1972 when Clive Sullivan's much-televised long-range try in Lyon earned the boys in red, white and blue a 10-10 draw and ultimately the World Cup because they finished higher than Australia in the earlier league placings.

 

This year's groups are as follows:

Group A: England, France, Greece, Samoa

Group B: Australia, Fiji, Italy, Scotland

Group C: Ireland, Jamaica, Lebanon, New Zealand

Group D: Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, Wales, Tonga.

 

Our congratulations go to several former Oldham players who will be competing, including Michael Ward (Ireland). Joe Burke (Wales), Aaon Jones-Bishop and Jordan Andrade (Jamaica) and Richard Lepori (Italy).

 

Our congratulations go also to Tyler Dupree, now of Salford Red Devils, who is in the England Knights squad and also to another member of the Knights squad -- Huddersfield's Oliver Russell, an Oldham boy and the son of Richard, our former hooker.

 

The State Of Mind charity, which does wonderful work in the field of mental health, has released a song which will be the unofficial anthem of the World Cup.

 

A choir, involving several members of the Challenge Cup choir which sung at the 2016 Challenge Cup Final at Wembley, among them Oldham rep Craig Halstead, will sing it live when England play Australia in the Physical Disability Rugby League (PDRL) World Cup on October 23.

 

The World Cup starts with England v Samoa at St James Park, Newcastle on Saturday.