The Santa Eulalia Sharks Rugby League Tribe started it's life as a supporters group for the Fulham Rugby League Club and Kent/Southend Invictor(now extinct)in the early 1980's.It's founder members were named Kevin Martinez and Pedro Piñero who were very keen on Rugby League and they convinced their young friends to take an interest in the oval ball game although the sport had no history in Spain and could not be seen on television.The two boys found plenty of converts.A well wisher supplied the group with video tapes mainly of Australian matches and coaching video tapes.These tapes led to the popularity of the Balmain Tigers and other Australian sides but this never appeared to weaken the support for Fulham(now called London Broncos)
Aided by a group of adults the children promoted their cause to become Spain's first Rugby League Club.`They promoted their existence in the Rugby League Press mainly at first in the Rugby Leaguer.The interest shown by the Leaguer encouraged the youngsters to continue their campaign.It was after a photo of a group of them appeared in the Leaguer that they decided to call themselves the Santa Eulalia Rugby League Club-the Tigers this was to change to the Sharks when they were supplied with a mainly blue kit.Friends from the British Isles also supplied them with rugby balls(always difficult to find on the island),tackle shields and 2 tackle bags that were sent by a supporter in Ireland.Tackle bags and Tackle shields were not available on the island and when two players from the main(only)Rugby Union Club on the Island watched the youngsters train they confessed that they had never ever seen tackle shields or bags.The 2 Union players also expressed their surprise at the amount of interest and support the youngsters received from England.
The youngsters were also seen playing on the beach by Don Andrews(later Editor of Ibiza Now)and he interviewed them and wrote an article on them that appeared in Ibiza Now.There also followed a photo in Open Rugby and stories or snippets in Rugby Leaguer Review,Rugby League Week and they were mentioned in many Rugby League Fanzines.They were also mentioned in The Daily Majorca Bulletin when they wrote to it to express their hopes for the future of Rugby League in Spain.They told the Bullitin that they were passing around a card for all their supporters to sign wishing Balmain Good Luck and that they hoped 70 people would sign it.We now know that 110 people signed that card.
We can find no mention of Sta.Eulalia Rugby League Club after 1991 although we do have a photo of a small group of children taken in 1992.Someone has said the team(?)was still around as late as 1995.We have no record of any article appearing in Spanish about the Sharks.
Special note:From Super League X1 (2006)the London Broncos will be known as Harlequins Rugby League.
La tribu Española perdida de la Rugby League los Tiburones de Santa Eulalia
(extinto creída)
Nayara Torres Martinez,Nicholas Murado,Dani Rodriguez,Emilo Cruz,Pedro Ontiveros,Daniel Amador,Victor Gayo,Angel Lucio Portillo,Danny Jackson,Eva Fernandez,Luis Miguel Villalba,Juan Tur,Pedro Piñero,Rafa Cabrera,David Torres,Rebecca Hernández,Ben Huck,Monica Ramon,Jesus Guirado,Jose Arraez,Rosanna Martinez,Adrian Moore,Claudio Mateo,Juan Guirado,Ismael Lopez,Antonio Tur,Jose Tur,Francesco Termine,Feliciano Garcia,Dani Cortez,Francesco Pe Roig,Diego Fernando,Marie Carmen Cruz,Javier Gonzalez,Manuel Moya,Javier Arraez,Tanit Sindin,Alex Garcia,Juan Fernando Heredia,Veronica Piñero,Sabina Termine,Carolina Martinez Irons, Toni Torres,Kevin Juan Martinez Irons,Javier Martinez,Fabian Gomez,Antonio Santiana Marie,Raffa Antonio Garcia,Gustavo Santiana Marie,Daniel Fernando Rodriguez,Jose Vargas Lopez,Roman Gonzalez,Javier Ferrer,Valentine.....?,Diego........? Christine Irons Armstrong,Manolo Martinez Ruiz, Juan Fernando,Ana.....? Evilio Notario ,Jimmy Irons,Alex Irons,Scott Irons.
Special note:From Super League X1 (2006)the London Broncos will be known as Harlequins Rugby League.
The London Broncos Search Party was formed to search for the lost Spanish Rugby League tribe the Santa Eulalia Sharks to tell them that Spain forgot(again) to send a team to the Rugby League World Cup and that Fulham Rugby League Club are now called Harlequins Rugby League
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