Wales will take on Jamaica in a senior men’s rugby league international at The Lextan Gnoll in Neath on Tuesday 15th October (kick-off 7.30pm).
The match takes place a week before we start our Men’s World Cup qualifying campaign and four days before Jamaica fly to Canada for their next match. We face Serbia in Carcassonne on Tuesday 22 October, with the winners facing the victors of France and Ukraine in a final that will be played on Saturday 26th October in Perpignan. The succesful nation will take a step closer to the 2026 World Cup in Australia by qualifying for the World Series in 2025.
It will be our first full senior men’s international since the last World Cup in 2022 and the first in South Wales since 2016, so head coach John Kear is looking forward to playing in front of potentially a packed house at The Lextan Gnoll.
Kear said: “The game against Jamaica is important for a number of reasons. One is preparation for the World Cup qualifying competition that we have within a week of the game plus, more importantly for me is that we’re playing a Wales men’s international in South Wales for the first time in years and it’s absolutely vital that we play at home every year.
“The majority of the Jamaica team, like ours, will come from a Championship environment and there are still play-offs going on at that time, so we’ll both be looking at the scenario and see who’s ruled out and who we have to draft in.
“But I’m pretty much at ease. We played against Cumbria last year to raise awareness for The Anthony Nolan Trust and for Kyle Amor’s testimonial, but a big plus for having that game is that we could field our young players. That gives me confidence in selecting for full internationals.
“We know we’ll have a tough World Cup qualifying campaign which is why this game against Jamaica is vital for us. There are four teams in the World Cup qualifying campaign, only one side goes through and France will be favourites as they’ll pull most of their side from Toulouse and Catalans who are both full-time. But that won’t bother us as a group, we’ll be focussing on performing well and if we do that, we’ll have every chance of getting a result.”
RLJA director and head coach Romeo Monteith said: “Jamaica are looking forward to the match. For the first time since the World Cup in 2022, it gives us a chance to see our UK based players which is important as we head towards World Cup qualifiers in 2025.
“We’ve only had one international since the last World Cup, and that was against the USA last December in Kingston. We played only Jamaican-based players then, so this is the perfect chance to engage our English-based professionals. We hope to have some key senior players involved but also to debut several younger players who we hope will become main stays over the next few years.
“We expect a good match against Wales, they are preparing for their World Cup qualifiers and will have a strong squad. It’s brilliant they get to play at home and we are encouraging fans and sponsors to support both teams.”
WRL CEO Richard Hibbard said: “We’re delighted to be welcoming Jamaica to The Lextan Gnoll in Neath for this full senior men’s international match.
“It will be the first men’s international match since I took over as CEO and I believe the first at home since 2018 and the first in South Wales since 2016. When I joined Wales Rugby League, I knew that this was one of the things that we needed to change and it’s our aim that we will get back to playing home international matches for our men’s side on an annual basis. It’s important that all of our international sides get to play in front of their own fans on home soil.
“Jamaica will provide stern opposition for us. We expect that most of their players will come from the English league system, the same as ours, so they’ll give us much needed preparation ahead of our World Cup qualifiers that start a week later.”
Tickets are available from NeathRFC.com/tickets.
