As the path to the 2013 Rugby League World Cup looms larger and larger on the road atlas of international rugby league, the Lebanese Rugby League Federation has announced its initial steps along that path via a programme of autumn internationals consisting of four matches against Italy and a Pakistan Rugby League representative team.

The Cedars will travel to northern Italy to play two matches against the Azzurri, on 22 and 25 September, before hosting Pakistan XIII in the inaugural MENA Championship on 3 and 6 October. The European tour will serve as preparation for the visit of a Pakistan side making its senior debut in international rugby league, with the MENA Championship – the tournament will be bestowed full official status when all participants have a mandate to represent their state - completing the trio of regional tournaments that will form the representative foundation for MENA football for the foreseeable future. The tour will also give Italy a chance not only to begin its own preparation for an October series in Wales but also to avenge their humiliating 86-0 loss in Tripoli in the 2009 European Cup.

This year, though, the LRLF has concentrated on local talent, naming only two players from outside Lebanon in its 24-man train-on squad. Abdul Bekdache, the hero of the 2008 Euro Med Challenge win against Serbia, returns to Lebanon after a four-month spell back in his native Sydney, while Boston 13s play-maker George Aroyan heads to Lebanon in early September.

LRLF Chief Operating Officer Remond Safi said: “the general spirit is high in the camp as preparations begin; this has been their highlight of the summer, many boys are looking forward to representing the Cedars in the preparation matches against Italy but the main focus is the MENA Championship against Pakistan where they will be hoping to maintain Lebanon’s unbeaten streak on home soil”.

The aspirant Cedars begin training in early August and will be joined by an interim head coach - to be announced by the LRLF imminently - in September who will take charge of the national side and report back to Lebanon head coach Johnny Elias in Australia, drilling them according to Elias’s methods to ensure seamless integration into the world cup qualification squad in 2011.

LEBANON 2010 FIXTURES
ITALY v LEBANON, Stadio Communale Simone Franchini, Monselice, 22 September
ITALY v LEBANON, Stadio Communale del Plebiscito, Padova, 25 September

MENA CHAMPIONSHIP
LEBANON v PAKISTAN XIII, Olympic Stadium, Tripoli, 3 October
LEBANON v PAKISTAN XIII, Olympic Stadium, Tripoli, 6 October