USA beat Jamaica to secure 2013 Rugby League World Cup berth

[josie andrews]

The United States were celebrating the culmination of nearly 15 years' work after becoming the 13th nation to secure their place in the 2013 World Cup.

The Tomahawks will line up alongside Wales and the Cook Islands in Group D after beating Jamaica 40-4 in Philadelphia to win the Atlantic zone qualifying group.

It was third time lucky for the States, who lost out to Lebanon in qualifying for the 2000 event and were beaten by Samoa in the preliminary stages of the last World Cup in 2008.

The head coach, Matt Elliott, who was formerly in charge at Bradford, said: "There's been some tough defeats and some near misses. I think the first thing to do is to recognise what everyone did prior to this."

The United States lost all three matches in the 1995 Emerging Nations Cup, which was played alongside the Centenary World Cup in Britain, and Elliott believes the Jamaicans will make similar progress in the years to come.

"They're probably going through the same process as the USA did," he said. "They deserve a heap of credit, the whole coaching staff and all the players."

The final spot in the 14-team World Cup will be decided on Saturday when unbeaten Italy and Lebanon meet in the last round of the European zone qualifying competition in Belgrade.

The winners of that match will line up alongside Scotland and Tonga in Group C.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/oc ... world-cup?

[josie andrews]

Way to go the Tomahawks

I have a friend in the US who is a massive RL fan & follows this team