Greece claimed the inaugural European Rugby League Women’s B title after a 28-0 victory over Serbia in front of 400 fans at the Gorytsa Stadium, Aspropygos in Athens on Saturday.
The hosts scored six tries, two in six minutes at the start of the second half, taking the game away from the Serbs.
“To beat Serbia and become Euro B South champions was beyond our wildest dream when we brought the squad together a few months ago,” Greece women’s coach, Stuart McLennan, said after the match.
Greek Rugby League (GRL) Australia team manager, Terry Liberopoulos, also spoke to The Greek Herald on Monday and congratulated the women on their win.
“Every girl was from the Greek competition, not from here. It was all just the local girls. They just smashed them,” Mr Liberopoulos said.
Winger Velissaria Koutsioumpa, who scored both of Greece’s tries in Istanbul, opened the scoring in the eighth minute, Kleopatra Velmachou – who converted her own effort – also going over before half time to make it 10-0 at the break.
Greece finished strongly with two touchdowns in the final nine minutes, centre Styliani Markou and Aspasia Stavrianou, whose sister Magdelini played at full back, the other try scorers.
SRL director, Radoslav Novakovic, said after the match: “The game was tough for us, most of our players were debutants but it was a great experience.”
The final group match between Serbia and Turkey is scheduled to take place at the end of November.
READ MORE: Greece defeats Turkey in European Rugby League women’s match.
Source: European Rugby League.
