With the NRL season commencing in Las Vegas this year I am reminded of when in 1989 I was coaching Wigan and we played an exhibition match at the Milwaukee Brewers Stadium against Warrington in LA.
It was quite amazing thinking back on it considering the ground/pitch was set up for the Brewers’ baseball games. During that era in the winter, the Green Bay Packers NFL side also played half of their home games each season there.
But I am reminded of a couple of things, one happening on the field, the other happening off it.
At that time, we were the leading team in the UK and Warrington was one of our fiercest rivals and were well led by Australian great, Les Boyd.
Boyd, one of several internationals in the Warrington team was in my opinion their main danger for us. He was at the end of his career but was still in devasting form for Warrington.
Our number one player at the time was Ellery Hanley – The Black Pearl, a player who would be great in any era.
But Boyd and Hanley had an intense dislike for one another that had probably brewed from earlier Kangaroos v Gt. Britain games. This caught most people, including me, by complete surprise.
The referee’s patience was really put to the test early in the game and he didn’t tolerate their behaviour for long and sent them both off. The crowd of around 15,000 Americans loved it and fortunately we went on to win the game.
The interesting thing was the footy field was partly on the baseball diamond and while it was 110 metres long it was only 50 metres in width which didn’t allow the space out wide rugby league teams are used to.
And the local TV sports commentator who called the game was just outstanding. He had only ever watched one game of rugby league on a video I gave him, but his talent was such he called the game as though he had been doing it for years.
