The tonga match will be a good one. And it should be a relatively close score line, unless all of the Tongans offloads stick and they finally play as a team (Something which has been lacking whenever they play).
The Japanese match is strange. There is only one team in Japan, and although they play at a relatively good standard, it is AMNRL standard not national team standard.
Strange that they would knock back playing their neighbours (can and jam), as these matches are the most affordable, and recently have been quality and entertaining matches.
Now, the USA sevens cup? I thought 9's would be the way to go, to differentiate from union, and to follow in line with the current international 9 tournaments in sydney, samoa, and Germany. Not to mention the Commonwealth games (even if USA isn't a comm nation, the int'l sporting body has indicated which short form of the game is the preferred).
And the AMNRL are organising it? 16 teams? 40 odd matches? corporate partners? WOW! The AMNRL plays majority of its matches at local parks alongside kids soccer, and they think they can organise this sort of event? This sort of event would take a full time event organisation at least 3 months to organise. Ammateurs? The best part of 12 months. David Niu? forever ongoing...
If we digest the news and read it for what it really is, we have:
- AMNRL season with 7 teams: NY Knights, Connecticut Wildcats, NY Raiders, Aston Bulls, BC Sharks, NOVA Eagles, Atlanta Legion.
- A Hawaii, Midwest and west conference with a handful of teams who are not properly set up and will play the odd game when teams are available to play (particularly Utah, Denver/Colorado, Las Vegas, Los Angeles)
- A match against Tonga
- A match against the Melbourne Storm in Hawaii
- A tour to France (whether they play club teams, home nations or national teams remains to be seen)
When will he learn that announcements should be made when things are not just good ideas or dreams, but formally set matches and definitely going to happen ...
