THE rejuvenation of York & District Amateur Rugby League is continuing apace - with a representative team now set to represent the Minster city in Ukraine.

The tour, in June, has been organised by York Acorn boss Leigh Paul-Rientoul and businessman Gary Dickenson, who is involved in neighbouring club New Earswick All Blacks.

It follows the call to get the York representative rugby league scene up and running again on the back of the successful East v West charity "Yorigin" clash staged at Clifton Park over the Christmas period. That match had been arranged in memory of York RL “legend” Stuart Evans, the long-serving match official, administrator and York City Knights historian, who was a big advocate of York & District ARL.

The tour will see players from each of the city's four community clubs - Acorn, All Blacks, Heworth and York Lokomotive - combine to compete in a 9s tournament in Kharkiv, which will also feature national representative teams from Italy, Poland and hosts Ukraine.

Paul-Rientoul explained the tour came about due to his links with the president of Ukraine RL, whom he had met while playing in that country for a touring BARLA Great Britain Under-23s team in 2009 and 2010.

"I've always kept in contact with him and he invited us to take a team over," said the Acorn coach.

"Ukraine will be playing in a 9s tournament in Serbia in August and this tournament in June is part of their preparations.

"He had seen what we had done with the charity East v West match and it went from there, and we think it's a great idea to go over.

"We're trying to build on that charity match and keep York & District going and keep it alive and kicking.

"It's great to have representative rugby back in the city. Lads who don't necessarily get the chance to play for BARLA GB or Yorkshire can get the chance to represent York and go on tours like this.

"We're hoping to get good feedback from it so things like this continue. The lads are raring to go and we hope it's another boost for amateur rugby league in York."

The plan had been to take three players from each club but Heworth's Liam Richmond could not confirm he could travel in time, and his fitting replacement in the 12-man squad was York & District ARL Player of the Year Adam Kirby, from New Earswick.

Also selected from the All Blacks are Liam Gargan, Dean Smith and Tom Holmes, while Heworth's representatives are Liam Jackson and Callum Worthington.

Going from Acorn are Karl Harton, young back-row Brandon Harris and Matt Chilton, along with Jarred Smith, Ricky James and Jon Cambridge from the Lokos.

Paul-Rientoul added: "We haven't necessarily picked the three best players from each club but people who would benefit from the experience or who deserve the chance to go as a kind of reward."

On the backroom staff, Paul-Rientoul will be joined by All Blacks player-coach Jack Stearman, administrator Tom Dunmore, from the Lokos, fellow organiser Dickenson and Mark Cram, from sponsors Commercial Cleaning.

Much of the trip is self-funded and any other potential sponsors are asked to phone Paul-Rientoul on 07854 378293.

The party fly from Luton to Kiev on Thursday, June 8 and then take a six-hour bus ride to Kharkiv. The tournament takes place on the Saturday, and they begin the return journey on the Sunday.