Moore Sports aiming for 30k +, promotion lined up for England and Clint Newton still carrying on like a sanctimonious prick...
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/ne...yers-union-rep-to-denver-20180615-p4zlm9.html
New Zealand and England will foot the bill for a representative from the Rugby League Players Association to fly to the United States for the historic Denver Test.
Despite the protracted debate over the merit of the mid-season Test, the New Zealand Rugby League and the Rugby Football League have dipped into their own pockets to allow the players' union's Clint Newton to see first hand the measures each country will take to ensure player welfare.
The RLPA, the NRL and its clubs had been signatories to a letter which had raised concerns about the timing of the Test at Mile High Stadium, which will be played at altitude on the stand-alone State of Origin weekend.
But in a show of good faith, the competing nations have asked the RLPA's general manager of stakeholder relations Newton to travel to Denver, where he will speak with England coach Wayne Bennett and New Zealand boss Michael Maguire.
"There’s a good saying around, 'Never waste a good crisis'," Newton said. "This is one of those occasions. The easy option would be to say, ‘Hey, we’ve been kind of hurt by this and now we don’t want to play with you’. That goes directly against what our responsibility is, which is to continually represent the players.
What are some opportunities to come out of this? We have never wavered once from our position on this, but they have chosen to say, ‘Let’s recognise the role the RLPA can play and let’s see what can come out of further collaboration’.
"You're going to need a telescope, binoculars and microscope. When decisions are made you need all three and there's some game-first proposals put forward to provide some comfort around the challenges this game has provided."
Organisers are hoping for a crowd of more than 30,000 to pack in to the home of the Denver Broncos for the match, which will be a precursor to the 2025 World Cup in North America.
And they will try to tap into the local market with the England side already scheduled for a spot of batting practice with Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies.
Bennett has named a strong squad with a sprinkling of NRL stars while Maguire will start the re-build of the Kiwis after a disastrous World Cup.
