THE US REPORT

   Jacksonville, Florida, hosted a premier match between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Leeds Rhinos at the University of North Florida  in January. I bird dogged the story at Covering Florida. One of my readers, Matthew Brown, struck up an email correspondence with me. Brown has kindly sent news of teams abroad and often explained terms to me. A sell-out crowd attended the January match hosted by the Jacksonville Axemen. As the popularity of rugby league grows in the US, we’ll keep you updated with developments and schedules. Matthew sent me this story and photos and we’re sharing it with our readers. Rugby League most definitely rocks! If you have a chance to see a game, believe me, you owe it to yourself to go. As many of my readers know, I am crazy for rugby league. Part of my enthusiasm is due to generous fans like Matthew and to the spirit and honor of the players, different in so many ways than some American sports.

(Gold Coast—Australia; by Matthew Brown)  The Brisbane Broncos faced the Gold Coast Titans at Skilled Park at Robina on April 18.  The Gold Coast is Australia’s 7th largest city, with 500,000 people, while Brisbane, 100km North, is our 3rd largest city with 1.8 million people.

This game is one of the big local derbies of Australian sport, and the game was a sellout of 27,000 people on the Coast, which was quite good because it rained all week.

It was my first visit to Skilled Park, which only opened this year and I was very impressed, even though it’s half the size of Brisbane’s home ground (the roof is made of canvas!).

The Coast ended up beating us 24-22, but that flattered Brisbane a bit and they thoroughly deserved the win.  However I did feel like yelling at the guy behind me who wouldn’t stop swearing (I had my little 10-year-old sister with me). But all in all it was a good night and we didn’t get too wet!

The atmosphere was amazing. The Gold Coast Titans were only admitted into the National Rugby League last year, but you'd think they'd been there for 10 years from the amount of merchandise. They've got a very good management team.

Recently, Sports Business Daily announced a new ESPN deal with Rugby Super League. Continuing its trend of picking up broadband rights to niche sports for U.S. audiences, ESPN signed a deal with the RSL for its broadband service ESPN360.com. Coverage began with the RSL Grand Final between St. Helens and the Leeds Rhinos. Starting in the '08 season, the service will offer 60 Super League matches and 20 minor league games, both live and on replay. The league, which is primarily based in Britain with a team in France, plays its regular season from February to September.  [Story and Photo by Matthew Brown. Brown is studying Environmental Management at Griffith University, Queensland leader for environmental science/management, Asian studies (Brown notes: “we do live in Asia after all”) and the arts. It includes the Queensland College of Art and Queensland Conservatorium.]
 
Ed. note: For information about US rugby league teams, visit the website of the American National Rugby League. For more information about my favorite US team, the Jacksonville Axemen, visit the JaxAxe site. Season begins in May.