Centurions first team captain and long time player Michael Hollister has said goodbye to old Blighty and along with wife Geri has moved to Austin, Texas in the good old US of A to start a new life and new job. Michael was an almost ever present player for the Centurions since 2010 when he played his first game for us against London Skolars, and ended up several years later as the first team captain.
The clubs sends its best wishes to Mike and Geri on their new adventure and hope everything goes smoothly. St Albans Centurions prop forward Niall Braniff will be running out in the colours of Serbian Rugby League club Red Star Belgrade for the next couple of months. Niall recently flew out to Serbia, where he joined the club in their last few weeks of their season. Red Star play in the Serbian Rugby League and the Balkans Superleague, and this season they are trying and consolidate top spot in the Serbian League, win their Grand Final semi final against Radniki Nis and also get to the finals of the Balkan Superleague. Niall says “This all came about through the Centurions physio, Len McMain. Len is also the Serbian national teams physiotherapist. We were talking about European Rugby League and he just happened to mention that Red Star were looking to strengthen their team in the build up to a very busy end of season. I mentioned what a great opportunity it would be to play out there, and, to cut a long story short, Red Star looked at a few videos of me playing, made enquiries and asked me to join them. I'm now just waiting for a few details to be confirmed. I am really looking forward to this experience.” The Serbian Rugby League is made up of teams from Serbia only, but the Balkans Superleague is made up of the top clubs from several country's rugby league competitions, these are Novi Beograd (Serbia), Budapest (Hungary), Partizan (Serbia), Vitez (Bosnia), Lokomotiv Sofia (Bulgaria), Red Star Belgrade (Serbia), Kadikoy Bulls (Turkey) and Dorcol (Serbia). St Albans Centurions chairman Andy Lake said “We are all pleased that Niall will be getting the experience of playing in another country. Serbia is one of the great success stories of our sport. Rugby league started there in 2001, and now there are 17 clubs and over a thousand registered players, and each year the numbers increase. Several Serbian players have already had trials with Superleague clubs in this country.” Update 15.11.17 Red Star Belgrade have won the Serbian Grand Final against local rivals Partizan Belgrade by 44 points to 22. Niall was playing in the game and Len McMain was the physio. A nice touch at the end was when they asked Len to present the trophy to the winning team as a thank you for all the work he has done for Serbian RL. When interviewed by Serbian TV, Len was wearing his Cents top and even name dropped St Albans Centurions a few times. St Albans Centurions physio, Len McMain is off on his travels once more. Len, who is also the Serbian Rugby Leagues national team physiotherapist has flown to Belgrade to lend his expertise to the Red Star Belgrade RL team who have two massive games coming up in the next couple of weeks. Len said " First, Red Star are in the Serbian Rugby League Grand Final against local rivals Partizan Belgrade on Sunday the 12th, and then the following Sunday they are playing in the Balkans Superleague Grand Final, and they have asked if I would come over and help them out with these two big games. I am also looking forward to meeting up with Cents player Niall Braniff who is already out there playing with Red Star."
Len is also the physio for Biggleswade Town FC and Arlesey Town FC. |
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