Previous Seasons' News

American Bewdy 2002-06-19

AMERICAN BEWDY
Nick Walshaw - 19 Jun 2002
Rugby League Week

A motley crew of Aussies and other assorted ex-pats are carving out a niche for rugby leauge in the US of A.

New Yorkers rarely stop to take in the view. The Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, backdrops whizzing by in a whirl of colour. For the eight million people living in this self-proclaimed financial capital of the world, time is always money.

And so it is on this warm summer's night as the New York Knights run through a series of ball-handling drills on the rooftop of pier 40 - a massive six-storey complex jutting out over the Hudson River.

Playing fields are as rare as parking spaces in this concrete jungleand the recently redeveloped shipping pier has been converted into a multi-use sports facility. Demand for time on the rooftop field is high, with some teams not booked in until one o'clock in the morning.

Teams have exactly 90 minutes to train, and then the next group arrives.

So with fixed lights shining down on the field's lurid-green artificial turf, the Knights criss-cross through a series of hometown moves - "Harlems", "Chinatowns", "pimps". The players work in pairs, then in groupsof four and six, blissfully unaware of the spectacular view around them.

To the north of Pier 40 is the Empire State Building, all 102 storeys patriotically illuminated in red, white and blue. A half-turn south is the reddish glow from the Statue of Liberty's torch, a present from those lovable French Roosters back in the late 1800's. Only to the south-west is there a pronounced emptiness in the New York skyline; a patch of darkness where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood.

Welcome to Rugby League in the mighty US of A.

The New York Knights are one of six teams competing in the fledgling American National Rugby League (AMNRL), founded four years ago by former St George Dragons five-eighth David Niu. Centred around the cities of New York and Philadelphia, teams include the Knights, Glen Mills Bulls, Media Mantarays, Philadelphia Fight, New Jersey Sharks and Wilmington Vikings.

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