Leicester prepare for a rough ride against America's rugby football converts

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/16/leicester-rough-riders-us-rugby-football-philadelphia

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On Wednesday in Philadelphia, the National Rugby Football League met the press.

Michael Clements and George Robertson, two businessmen seeking to form a professional US rugby union competition staffed by former NFL and college football players, spoke to local TV and toured Lincoln Financial Field. On 8 August, the home of the Eagles is slated to host as the NRFL pitches its first select team, the aptly named Rough Riders, against the Leicester Tigers.

“The programme’s been talked about for a couple of years now,” Scott Clarke, the 10-time English champions’ head of community and global partnerships, told the Guardian. “And obviously with Premiership Rugby being keen to expand the brand it was a natural fit.

“We have great support from [Peoria, Illinois-based construction giant] Caterpillar, which means we do have quite strong links in the US, and I had already been out in October and set up a college camp in Virginia [at Mary Washington University].

“So there was a keen interest from us, not just for our sponsor and marketing but for talent. It’s an immense, untapped area.”

You know you’re going to get some athletes, you know they’re going to be able to tackle and to hit

Three rather immense former football players were in attendance. Two were returning to familiar territory: Oregon defensive tackle Isaac Remington (6ft 6in, 305lbs) and Golden West offensive tackle Nic Purcell (6ft 6in, 300lbs) were cut by the Eagles in 2013, after playing preseason. Remington, an amiable bearded giant, allowed that it was “surreal” to be back with rugby ball in hand; Purcell, a Thames Valley rugby player in his native New Zealand, nodded his agreement.

The third player, the squarer-cut Taylor Gentry (6ft 2in, 250lbs), made the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad as a fullback out of North Carolina State before injury put paid to such ambitions.

In rugby, Purcell is an experienced lock forward playing at Brigham Young University; Remington is a would-be lock, training himself up; and Gentry is a flanker at club level in Greensboro.

“They’re great lads, top athletes and it will be interesting to see how quickly they can adapt into a game with lots of complexities,” said Clarke. “Until we see what their training camp is and how it functions, what intensity it operates on, you’re not going to know what you’re going to get.”

The NRFL’s plan is to take Remington, Purcell, Gentry and 57 others on its roster – including former Colts and Cardinals safety Aaron Francisco, a veteran of two Super Bowls, and the great Packers running back Ahman Green – and subject them to an intensive June training camp. Once the squad has been reduced to 30 or so, the plan goes, those players will be flown overseas for further training – scrummages as well as scrimmages, to mix rugby and football lingo. Then it will be back to Philly and the big day against the Tigers.

Asked what a Tigers squad in pre-season and without its World Cup stars will expect from such an unknown quantity, Clarke said: “You know you’re going to get some athletes, you know they’re going to be able to tackle and to hit – it’s what they hit and when and where they hit it and what happens after it [that will count]. That’s the key thing for us.”

Clarke’s words pointed to some interesting questions, among them what the NRFL team will do for a front row. Prop and hooker are highly specialised positions, potentially dangerous and no place for eager inexperience. Clements and Robertson plan therefore to bring in seasoned operators, potentially in other key positions too. Presumably the summer’s training camps will also impart the strict rules of rugby tackling.

Off the field, the Rough Riders, named for Teddy Roosevelt’s volunteer cavalry, as yet have no head coach. Despite the previous involvement of the Ireland and US coach Eddie O’Sullivan, around plans for a game against London Irish in August 2013, the NRFL has not put a team on a field. Nor do they represent the only attempt to professionalise the US game; nor do they yet have the blessing of USA Rugby.

We love Taylor Swift and Jon Bon Jovi and maybe some soccer spattered in there, but that’s not what built these stadiums

But no one said you can succeed in business without trying. And as he surveyed the stands and facilities of Lincoln Financial Field, Clements was bullishly entrepreneurial.

“Our aim is still for a league up next spring,” he said, referring to plans for six to 12 city-based teams. “We are putting this game on so it’s a presentation, if you will, of the greatness of the game and to get the various participants to see and know that they can play.

“Number two, it’s for the fans to be able to take this in. So many people we’ve talked with have stated: ‘Where can I see this?’ Now it’s here. And the people who have these stadiums are looking at this and saying, ‘What a great use of this facility’.”

The NRFL hopes to use NFL stadiums from April to July, the football offseason. “The contact-tackle sports people built these facilities,” Clements said. “We love Taylor Swift and Jon Bon Jovi, and maybe some soccer spattered in there, but that’s not what built these stadiums.”

Related: New Zealand run amok against USA but may count the cost of injuries

At Lincoln Financial Field, vertiginous stands tower over a lush grass surface. At pitch level, it feels rather like Soldier Field in Chicago, where in November USA Rugby squeezed in a rugby pitch on which its own Eagles faced New Zealand. A sell-out crowd of 61,500 watched the All Blacks win 74-6.

Asked what he hoped to achieve by staging a game against the twice-European-champion Tigers at the home of the NFL’s Eagles, which holds 68,500, Clement said: “My target? Sell out the place.

“There’s no reason not to. If everyone does their job, I literally say we should have a sell-out. With the number of fans interested in following the crossover, the contact-tackle sports fans, the American fans looking for high-level sports entertainment, and with the Tigers and their passionate following and this destination venue, I’m not going to be happy till we can say that we’ve sold out.

“Now some people can say that’s ambitious, when you look at what we have here. But I don’t think it’s far-fetched.”