Rugby league the sport of royalty? That’s certainly the case in Saudi Arabia, where the newly crowned Middle East North Africa U16s champions, Saudi Schools Select, a team sponsored by Ferrari, were contacted with a good luck message from a member of the royal family on the morning of the deciding game against Lebanon U16s.

“The fact that a number of the royal Al-Saud family also play the game is remarkable,” says Saudi rugby league manager Chris Ratcliffe. “We made front page of the Arab News on two consecutive days with our results.” That interest has increased following the return of the triumphant Camels to the desert kingdom, proud possessors of the MENA U16s trophy.

“Rugby league is the only sport played in the international schools here in Saudi Arabia where students can gain representative honours,” continues the St Helens native, who is head of PE at Jeddah Prep & Grammar School. “This can only attract more and more interest from around the kingdom.” That interest has already manifested itself in significant awareness from seven- and eight-year-olds as well as girls who want to join the already established U12, U14 and U16s that play in Ratcliffe’s own JPGS, and American International and British International Schools of Jeddah.

“The U14 and U12 teams here in Jeddah are very strong so the pool of talent is coming through and they are similar to the current U16s in that most are Arab boys playing any form of rugby for the first time and really loving the experience.

“Our biggest test is getting the other schools in the kingdom involved…whether this is in Dhahran, Al Khobar, KAUST (a university), Riyadh, Dammam, Yanbu. There are some youth rugby union teams but with what we can offer in terms of fixtures should be enough to entice them to our sport. A truly national team and national sport is the ultimate goal.”

Compared to the much more established other code, whose history as an organized sport in the Arabian Gulf dates back to the 1970s, the Saudis, who began playing rugby league in 2008, are well on their way to that goal, with six of the 18-man squad locals (the winning try in the MENA U16s was scored by one of them, centre Rakhan Al-Makhtoun).

The tournament itself is part of an initiative by regional partners to develop a series of competitions, with the next one an U14s Schools 9s, again in Beirut, this May. All three Saudi schools will make the trip, with the idea that fixed dates will allow various Middle East nations to plan future calendars around them.

“The players are really happy with the victory,” continues Ratcliffe. “The aim was to come back with the trophy and they did just that. The lads just want to play more games and that is the key thing. As for me, all the hard work has paid off. Who would have thought how much progress would have been made in just two years; now they are actually looking more and more like a rugby league team and I am impressed with their knowledge of the game.”