Four years ago the United States were the darlings of the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.
A minnow compared to the likes of Australia, England and New Zealand, the USA bucked expectations by beating Wales and the Cook Islands to memorably reach the quarter-finals in its tournament debut. A rag-tag bunch made up of six players from the domestic American competitions, a handful from the Queensland and NSW Cup, and four NRL players, thrown together at the last minute, did what few thought was possible.
But the impact on rugby league in North America was negligible. The national team were hailed as heroes by the rugby league world, and even had a Wiggles song named after them, but it made barely a ripple in the US sports market.
Current USA coach Brian McDermott wants to change all that.
McDermott, who is also boss of Super League side Leeds Rhinos, was installed as Hawks coach in 2015. He is preparing the USA for the next World Cup, which is less than three months away, and is out to make sure a strong legacy is left by this group of players.
“In the last World Cup the USA created some brilliant headlines and did a really good job,” McDermott tells The Sportsman.
“They were everyone’s second team because no one expected them to do that well. But after that particular squad broke up there wasn’t much legacy, I know the legacy was very limited. And that’s not to say what went on wasn’t good – it was great what went on.
“But I think Peter Illfield, who’s the chairman, his remit right from the off was we want to create some legacy. We want you to be coach, we want you to get them qualified in 2015 and we want you to be head coach for the World Cup. But at the end of the World Cup regardless of what we do, we want a group of men to be able to go back to the US and say ‘not only this is what rugby league is about’, but ‘this is what it’s like at the highest level’.
“And for the next World Cup this is what you need to do to prepare, whether it be clubs, players, administrators, this is what you need to do to make sure your players and your clubs are in the best nick possible and be as good as they can be for the next World Cup.”
The Hawks have been handed an incredibly difficult draw for the 2017 World Cup. In Group D they face Fiji and Italy, and will also travel to Port Moresby to play Papua New Guinea. The winner of Group D will face the second-ranked team from Group B, likely to be Samoa or Tonga, in the quarter-finals.
Part of the battle for McDermott and the USA is getting the right balance of domestic players and heritage players in his squad. If the Hawks side are filled with only Australians and Kiwis with American grandparents, then the legacy mission will be affected. But a sprinkling of top talent, like Cronulla’s Joseph Paulo, will also be needed to compete with the best in the world.
“We had a good healthy number of heritage players in the qualifiers, but there was more than enough domestic players,” McDermott said.
“Without putting a finite figure on it, a decision was made that we will include a good number of domestic players in the World Cup. They need to play. That’s part of it. If your remit was only legacy you’d take 25 domestic players and have no heritage players. But then that’s not the only remit, it’s for us to be as good as we can be. Let’s try and win some games, let’s try and make some headlines.
“I’m not sure which I would put first because yes we want to win some games, yes we’d like to progress through further. It would be naïve of me to say we’re going to win the World Cup. So the legacy’s part of it’s great, but we want to be competitive as well.”
With a World Cup to be held on American soil in 2025, this year’s tournament is part of a broader plan to help spread rugby league across the United States. And with a three-time Super League grand final winning coach like McDermott on board, the Hawks are well placed to make their mark once more.
