By BRIAN LOWE
THE new domestic season in the United States is set to kick off this coming weekend, June 3.
This year there are eight teams in the North Conference and four in the South Conference.
The Philadelphia Fight (North Conference) will be defending their title, but they can expect stiff competition from last year’s grand finalists Jacksonville Axemen and the Atlanta Rhinos (South Conference), as well as the newly formed White Plains Wombats (North Conference).
Two thousand and seventeen ushers in the seventh USA Rugby League (USARL) season and the 20th overall American domestic season.
The Fight have won four USARL championships since the league broke away from the now defunct American National Rugby League (AMNRL) in 2011.
Due to this being a Rugby League World Cup year, the national governing body has specific goals in terms of what it’s expecting from the competition.
“What I’m hoping will come from the season is an improvement in performance from our domestic players to make a genuine bid to represent their country,” said USARL chairman Peter Illfield.
“We’ve been looking at players ever since we were successful at the (RLWC) Qualifiers in December 2015.
“We’ve been taking into consideration the squad we had then, plus the players we had in the Test matches in 2016, and we’ve put together a group of players that we continue to monitor.”
Leeds Rhinos coach Brian McDermott, who led the Hawks through their successful RLWCQ series, will again serve as United States head coach, while Mark Gliddon, who coaches Norths in the Intrust Super Cup in Australia, was recently named as an assistant coach.(continued below)
Jacksonville Axemen coach Sean Rutgerson will guide the national team in this year’s Rugby League Americas Championship and is utilising social media to overcome the tyranny of distance obstacle that constantly plagues players in the US.
Rutgerson has set up a US Hawks accountability Facebook page where strength and conditioning programs are laid out for players to follow to accelerate their rugby league readiness and fitness to give them every opportunity to be considered for select side and then national team honours.
Dovetailing in with that, the domestic competition has some built-in select side matches, including the North vs South All-Stars game, North and South Conference championships and the USARL Grand Final.
Illfield says the expectation is that players will step up to the higher level of play.
“I think the North vs South match will be a much more intense and competitive game than in the past, and it will highlight a much-needed opportunity for guys to be selected.
“There are no guarantees, so the guys have to do the work from here on in to get themselves rugby league fit and I’m hopeful the players will respond.”
On top of their North American Test schedule, the Hawks are also looking at scheduling a RLWC warm-up game when they get to Australia, most likely to be played in Townsville where they’ll be based.
They will be in Pool D alongside Fiji, Italy and Papua New Guinea.
