LRLF officials are in buoyant mood following an encouraging meeting with Fadi Yarak, the director general of the Ministry of Education in his office on Friday.

During the meeting, in the UNESCO area of Beirut, the LRLF laid out its recent accomplishments, burgeoning profile and plans for the future, all of which were met enthusiastically by Mr Yarak, who discussed the 2009 schools activities in the north and praised the Under 16s national team’s tour to Qatar earlier this month.

The ministry has asked the LRLF to prepare an action plan for schools, which will feature the absorption of rugby league into the official schools tournament cycle starting from 2011. The LRLF and the ministry will use the rest of this year to begin weekly training sessions in schools.

The LRLF, heralded as “the hardest working sport in Lebanon,” by schools sports supreme Adnan Hammoud, who was also in the meeting, will target key areas currently running development projects, such as Beirut, Tripoli, Akkar and the Metn, but plans for major expansion into Saida and other areas of Lebanon are also in the pipeline.

The dividends from the Qatar tour are already paying off, with many of the returning teachers and players feted by their schools upon their return, and large cadres of sports teachers signing up for new coaching courses.