Sydney 9‘s Rugby League Competition

Saturday the 20th of February Sydney hosted the 2021 Sydney cup 9s where 16 international men’s teams played for the Sydney cup 9s trophy and 6 women's teams battled it out for the women's Sydney cup 9s trophy.

The day is a great day of multiculturalism and pride. You really see a difference in how the players play when they run out onto the field representing their heritage, it’s almost like they are preparing for battle. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to represent Lebanon and what a feeling it was. Running onto that field to the sound of the drums gives you goosebumps and an indescribable adrenaline rush. Our first game was against Malta and the pressure was on as we had a special guest watching us play. The Lebanese boys put on a show and we defeated Malta 14-10.

At 12:05 we kicked off our second game vs city. It was a tough game and we were definitely the underdogs as City had 5 Ex NRL players playing for them. It was a tough game and Lebanon managed to pull through and take the win 18-14. Our 3rd game and our most important game of the day we played the extremely tough side Niue. The winner of this game advanced to the final. It was a tough battle. Unfortunately we lost the game in the last few minutes when Niue scored a try to win the game 10-8. That ended the day for us Lebanese boys. 

It was a great experience representing my heritage again and one I’ll never forget as I was fortunate enough to be able to play in the first grade men’s side. Playing in the men’s and getting the opportunity to play with and against some ex nrl and current NRL players was a breathtaking experience and one I have definitely learnt a lot from. It is definitely a big step up from playing in the Junior league. I’m looking forward to playing in the tournament next year and hopefully playing in a few test matches again later in the year. A quick congratulations to the cook islanders who ended up winning the men’s tournament. Also a quick shout out and congratulations to our Lebanese women's team who won the tournament undefeated. 

Zaine Nassar