RUGBY LEAGUE: St Albans Centurions Andy Lake and Rudie Van Der Merwe had an extremely hard night in Perpignan as they played for the Great Britain Community Lions Rugby League side. Playing against a French side full of professional players, GB found the

RUGBY LEAGUE: St Albans Centurions' Andy Lake and Rudie Van Der Merwe had an extremely hard night in Perpignan as they played for the Great Britain Community Lions Rugby League side.

Playing against a French side full of professional players, GB found themselves 12-0 down after 20 minutes and, had it not been for some solid defensive play from Van Der Merwe on the left side, it could have been more as the French displayed pace in abundance.

GB began to get a foothold in the game and battled well for the rest of the match.

Lake came on after 50 minutes only to be welcomed with a very high tackle by the French which saw Lake leave the field for five minutes.

With both Cents players on the Lions battled well, eventually going down 32-20, a scoreline that could have been closer had Lake not had a perfectly good try ruled out by the referee.

Both Lake and Van Der Merwe found the game a great experience and a very steep learning curve.

The next outing for the duo will hopefully be the trials match against pro club York City Knights in March before the return game against the French which is being played at Hull Kingston Rovers' ground.

The Lions are also on tour in 2010 visiting either the USA or New Zealand.