The Cameroon national rugby league team, known as the Indomitable Lions, represent
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
in international
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
football competition.
They made their debut in the
2019 Middle East Africa Championship in October 2019 with a 4-8 loss to
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
in
Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...
, Nigeria, after travelling by bus for eight days go get there.
the Cameroon team is ranked 36th in the
Rugby League International Federation
The International Rugby League (IRL) is the global governing body for the sport of rugby league football. Previously known as the ''Rugby League Imperial Board'', the '' International Rugby League Board'' and latterly the ''Rugby League Internat ...
world rankings.
[
]
Background
Carol Manga (born ), who grew up in Yaounde, loved association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
as a child, and started playing rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
at the age of 14, going on to play in the national team at the age of 16. He has captained both rugby sevens and rugby union teams. He moved to Australia in 2008 to play rugby, and discovered and fell in love with rugby league, where he played in Cooma, New South Wales
Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina.
At the , Cooma had a po ...
. He took the game back to Cameroon in 2012, helping to establish the Cameroon Rugby League XIII. Ten years later in September 2022, at the age of 34, he is once again in training, with the hope of playing in and possibly captaining the national league team.[
]
2019 squad
Squad for 2019 MEA Rugby League Championship
The 2019 Middle East-Africa Rugby League Championship was the second MEA Rugby League Championship, held in October 2019 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, Nigeria. The competition saw the international debut of Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria, w ...
, as of 20 September 2019:
Results
Footnotes
References
{{National sports teams of Cameroon
National rugby league teams
National sports teams of Cameroon