LAS VEGAS — The moment before the real moment arrived Friday when two of the four National Rugby League teams playing in Saturday’s matches arrived inside Allegiant Stadium for the first time.
The Manly Sea Eagles were first to arrive, in the morning, for what’s called the “captain’s run,’’ which is a final walk-through training session before the match by the home clubs.
In this case, Manly, which plays the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the opening match, are the home team, as are the Sydney Roosters, who play the Brisbane Broncos in the nightcap.
As the Manly players walked around the same field on which the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl over the San Francisco 49ers, they looked like tourists in New York who gaze in awe at the skyscrapers and wave their cell phones around for pictures and selfies.
The Roosters got to do that in the afternoon.
For the Rabbitohs and Broncos, the “road’’ teams, their first taste of Allegiant Stadium will be Saturday for the matches.
For those watching the matches, either on TV or streaming or live at Allegiant Stadium, where league officials said more than 40,000 tickets have been sold, there are a litany of cool storylines intertwining the four clubs, beginning with star power.
There’s a reason these four teams were chosen for this trip — they’re the most glamourous, sexy and popular in the league.
The Rabbitohs, for example, are part-owned by movie star Russell Crowe, who can’t be at the matches because he’s out of the country shooting a film. Aussie movie star Hugh Jackman is a staunch supporter of Manly and is expected to be at the matches Saturday.
Here’s a look at some of the storylines for the matches:
Redemption
The matchup between the Sea Eagles and Rabbitohs features teams coming off disappointing 2023 seasons, missing top-8 playoffs, Manly finishing in 12th place in the table.
Brisbane is coming off an Atlanta Falcons-like Super Bowl collapse (re: 28-3 over Tom Brady and the Patriots), losing a 24-8 lead late in the second half of the Grand Final to the Penrith Panthers.
“So the Broncos have had a long, reflective offseason where I think they’ve dug into where it all went wrong and they now begin this season with a renewed desire and a bit of a sting left over because that loss really hurt,’’ Fox broadcaster Yvonne Sampson said. “They have the motivation to make sure they kick off with absolute certainly that they won’t let this one slip away. So, the Brisbane Broncos will be fascinating to watch.”
Battle of the fullbacks
In rugby, the fullback is not the plodding blocking back like in football but is the ultimate skill-position athlete, more like the dynamic receiver or kick returner in the NFL. These games feature some of the best fullbacks in the world in Manly’s Tom Trbojevic, South Sydney’s Latrell Mitchell and Reece Walsh from Brisbane.
While Trbojevic is probably the best all-around fullback here, he’s very humble and quiet. Mitchell is more outgoing and playful and made a prediction for Saturday night — that he was going to rename Allegiant Stadium “Trallegiant Stadium” after himself.
Former NRL player and current Fox broadcaster Matty Johns called Walsh “one of the great storylines’’ of the matches, adding, “He’s a young guy who was phenomenal last year. He’s a really good-looking kid, like the Justin Bieber of the NRL. Some of the young guys coming through at the moment are incredibly charismatic and Reece is one of them. On Grand Final day last year, he went to a fan fest and it was like Beatlemania. It was crazy.’’
Sampson said to watch out for Walsh, saying, “The fans are lining up at the buses to stop him from leaving training. The girls are obsessed with him because he’s young, he’s gorgeous, he loves the limelight, he’s very comfortable in the spotlight. So, I think everyone might be a fan of Reece Walsh after this week.’’
Former teams
Manly coach Anthony Seibold coached the Sydney Rabbitohs in 2018 and was sacked after only one season.
On Saturday, he coaches against his former team.
One of the Broncos’ key players is veteran halfback Adam Reynolds, who won a premiership title with the Rabbitohs in 2014 and played 231 matches with the club.
NRL, not NFL
For those unfamiliar with the sport, rugby league will feel very similar to the American football, except there are no pads, no helmets, and teams have six tackles instead of four downs to score.
The rugby “touchdown’’ is called a “try.’’ Players cannot throw forward passes, only laterals or backward passes.
Debut
After playing 11 seasons with the Wests Tigers, who were perennial losers, Luke Brooks is playing his first match with Manly on Saturday.
Brooks comes from a place where he was expected to carry his club to Manly, where he’s expected to be a complementary piece.
“That’s what’s been good about coming over here, I’ve just been able to focus on what I do on the field,” Brooks said. “I feel like there’s not as much pressure on me. There’s a lot of good quality players here. I can just sort of sit back and just do my job.’’
Dimensions
The Allegiant Stadium field is not the ideal, regulation size for rugby.
The usual field used is 100 meters long by 68 meters wide. This field is 94.5 meters long and 63 meters wide.
This figures to make for a lower-scoring match with less room for the skill position players to roam. It, too, may put an emphasis on the kicking game.
Interestingly, the teams have been practicing on pitches of the Allegiant Stadium field size to prepare.