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The following rules apply to the use of this site: Terms of Use and Privacy / Cookie Statement | Privacy settings the national players are a source of pride as they travel to France for World Cup qualifiers By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required “Kharkiv is under attack every day – it is too dangerous to stay there – so it is very difficult to not pay attention to this,” says Skorbach via the team interpreter. “Some of the boys are not able to participate in the competition as they are protecting the Ukraine in our military and we are so thankful to them. We lost one player when his whole family were killed by a rocket. We are playing for them.” Only the winners of this week’s European qualifying tournament for the 2026 World Cup will proceed to the last qualifying stage, where they will meet the Cook Islands, South Africa and Jamaica. It is presumed by all outsiders that will not be Ukraine. Assuming they lose to France they will face Wales or Serbia on Saturday before returning home to scenes difficult for most to imagine. Read more“We have to show the best representation of Ukraine,” says the veteran Skorbach who has been playing rugby since he was 12 “We can’t just hope to play a good game – we want to win the French don’t know who we are or what to expect from us but we will show how powerful we are and what spirit we have.” They have done that just by getting to France Before it had chance to recover after the pandemic rugby league in Ukraine ground to a halt when Russia invaded in March 2022 with most matches taking place in secret and all teams going to a central location for one day round-robin tournaments Six of the squad are serving military men who have been given leave to play in the tournament and all players had to raise funds to pay for the 10-day trip “The main issue is players not being able to be released from frontline duty,” explains the Ukraine coach “Gone are the days when clubs would train twice a week There were 10 clubs and 29 teams before the war but they are still running some junior programmes and Ukrainian Super League games are broadcast on satellite TV.” Ukraine RL is miraculously close to meeting the criteria to remain full members of International RL with recognition of tag rugby and talks starting over wheelchair rugby league something that sadly has a rapidly increasing pool of potential participants It is an untold story that epitomises league’s survival spirit Long term the national team may get stronger as around 250,000 refugees are now in the UK union code-crossers and five heritage players from Australia’s lower tiers who had never met their teammates until last week are up against a France XIII of Super League players Then again Ukraine are used to the odds being stacked against them whose east Hull accent has been supplanted by a New South Wales one 12 years after leaving Humberside Our lads have a high skill-set and are physically ready We’ve given them a skeleton structure to play to but they will play the Ukrainian way – they’ve got a few tricks up their sleeves!” police officer Beardshaw has orchestrated Ukraine’s preparations online Ukrainian Super League – but only had four sessions on the field with them We had a squad of 31 go into two five-day camps with the domestic coaches and I watched those sessions Quite a lot speak English – five of the lads who went on an exchange to Milford Marlins [in Leeds] in 2018 are in the squad still – and we have an amazing translator but Google Translate has been essential Our hooker Dmytro Semerenko made out he didn’t understand any English then suddenly said a whole sentence perfectly!” The journey to France would have put off most teams The main party went by bus from Ukraine to the Czech Republic last week as the Australian contingent flew to Prague After dismantling the Czech Republic 84-0 in front of a vociferous crowd in Letohrad on Friday the majority spent 20 hours on a coach to Carcassonne while others paid to fly from Munich to Toulouse Talk after training always returns to the war as they watch the news phone home and hear of bombs falling terrifyingly close to loved ones they will not be exactly fresh in body or mind come Tuesday night Ukraine were impressive on Friday and should give Wales or Serbia a tough time on Saturday A year ago they went to Greece and won both Tests They have flown so far under the European radar they could pull off a shock win this week Free weekly newsletterThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s action Beardshaw has been touched that although his squad all have extraordinarily brave tales of frontline combat and heart-wrenching loss, they value his story, too. “The Ukrainian culture is so respectful. They will sit and listen to you and wait for you to finish. I told them all about how I ended up here – illness and family loss, Covid, marriage, everything – and they said: ‘This is the Ukrainian chapter in the book of your life.’” Two war-torn nations were supposed to be playing international rugby league in France this month but Lebanon cancelled a two-game series. Conflicting reasons have been aired, but few could point at a nation being bombed on a daily basis and expect their priority be to arrange and fund a rugby league trip. Lebanon had already lost their IRL full member status despite reaching the last two World Cup quarter-finals, and unless they somehow re-establish their domestic programme the Cedars will disappear from the world stage at a time when they have more NRL and Super League players than ever. Scotland and Italy were stripped of full status for allowing their domestic programmes to crumble just as their playing base included sufficient full-time players to suggest they might be capable of becoming the northern hemisphere’s equivalent of Tonga or Samoa Instead the World Cup qualifiers feature Wales and a Serbia side that have drafted in eight Australian-Serbs including the former Samoa winger David Nofoaluma and Catalan-bound Nic Cotric The pair will bolster a domestic Serbia team that have been the most active in Europe but shown little sign of shirking their also-ran status Ukraine are determined to pull off a surprise or two representing Ukraine and our families,” says Skorbach who goes back to his day job managing a sports complex next week “We look like strong men from the outside but inside I feel weak emotionally The path is wide open for France to win the Euros and make it to Australia for the 2026 World Cup But whatever happens the real winners will be Ukraine.