NRL Vegas

[Mike]

I had fun in Vegas, not much banter with the Aussies, mainly non RL-fan Brits congratulating us on our WCC win and praising the WCC game.

Plenty of Aussie fans there, most were Souths and Manly with third most Brisbane , then the Roosters. I saw at least one fan from every SL team except London. About 6 other Wiganers, but the most surprising was the number of Hull fans. They were everywhere! Enough shirts in Vegas for Americana to ask me what it was all about.

The event was surprisingly not th slickest thing. High winds cancelled the outside tailgate party, the half time presentation in the first game was well done, but the build up to the first game was pretty poor and the weird audio problems where they kept micing up the ref at high volume at the wrong times was slightly embarrassing. Also apparently a "ruck infringement" is the single most important thing to every happen in a game. When the first happened the whole stadium jumped at the loudest alarm noise ever with a "ruck infringement! ruck infringement!" voice over. They kept accidentally playing that, even at half time. It was way louder than any other announcements about tries etc! A big cock up IMO. I was surprised that the NRL wouldn't be more professional than the overall presentation looked, especially in an NFL ground with all its audio visual potential. It's not just the RFL that messes things up.

In the first game the thing that struck me was the lack of attacking moves. Both teams were successful scoring by bashing over in the centres and second rows. Seemed like pretty weak goal line defense to me. We wouldn't have conceeded 20+ that's for sure. Penriths constant power plays must be less unusual than I thought. They may have been confused it wasn't working. When one team got a lead the other did try to open up a bit with some success, so I'm not sure why it's frowned upon so much. I'd say we would have beaten either of those two teams (if we can sort out our defensive line speed to restrict metres). Souths looked to fade as the match went on TBH. I'm not sure they're that good? I dunno but they've got a bunch to work on.

Didn't stay for the second game because of flights so don't know if that has better defense.

Overall a good fun day. It was really cool to see the rugby posts in an NFL stadium, even if it was in Vegas which I find to be one of the worst places on earth!

[moto748]

I didn't think Souths looked all that either. Manly are far from a great side, but DCE is all class.

[widdenoldboy]

I didn't think Souths looked all that either. Manly are far from a great side, but DCE is all class.

Only seen first half of first game but was incident packed and decent movement considering the narrow pitch. Crowd was decent but not exceptional, I haven't watched any build up etc. yet.

[medlocke]

Only watched first game, for some reason my SKy box recorded the second game from TNT sports and would not play even though I set it for SkY, was happy with the Manly win

[Mike]

I didn't think Souths looked all that either. Manly are far from a great side, but DCE is all class.

Only seen first half of first game but was incident packed and decent movement considering the narrow pitch. Crowd was decent but not exceptional, I haven't watched any build up etc. yet.

The pitch was only 4 metres narrower than the recommendations. It didn't "look" narrow to me, I reckon we have plenty that are worse than that in SL and the lower leagues.

[widdenoldboy]

I didn't think Souths looked all that either. Manly are far from a great side, but DCE is all class.

Only seen first half of first game but was incident packed and decent movement considering the narrow pitch. Crowd was decent but not exceptional, I haven't watched any build up etc. yet.

The pitch was only 4 metres narrower than the recommendations. It didn't "look" narrow to me, I reckon we have plenty that are worse than that in SL and the lower leagues.

Fair point Mike, if IIRC from the Superbowl the two sidelines areas (with 50 subs, coaches medical staff etc) were much bigger and maybe the playing pitch is wider than it was for that match? The area from touchline to the crowd looked pretty close last night.

[Mike]

Only seen first half of first game but was incident packed and decent movement considering the narrow pitch. Crowd was decent but not exceptional, I haven't watched any build up etc. yet.

The pitch was only 4 metres narrower than the recommendations. It didn't "look" narrow to me, I reckon we have plenty that are worse than that in SL and the lower leagues.

Fair point Mike, if IIRC from the Superbowl the two sidelines areas (with 50 subs, coaches medical staff etc) were much bigger and maybe the playing pitch is wider than it was for that match? The area from touchline to the crowd looked pretty close last night.

Yeah, the NFL sideline areas were all part of the pitch.

[widdenoldboy]

The pitch was only 4 metres narrower than the recommendations. It didn't "look" narrow to me, I reckon we have plenty that are worse than that in SL and the lower leagues.

Fair point Mike, if IIRC from the Superbowl the two sidelines areas (with 50 subs, coaches medical staff etc) were much bigger and maybe the playing pitch is wider than it was for that match? The area from touchline to the crowd looked pretty close last night.

Yeah, the NFL sideline areas were all part of the pitch.

I just assumed that they played on the NFL pitch as per the Milwaukee Challenge game back in the day, clearly not