Not many people know this but Las Vegas has a lot of things in common with rugby league. For a start, it’s where the expression “What happens on the field stays on the field,” comes from, you know like “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”
OK so maybe I’m stretching the truth a little but the journey from Penrith to Sin City is a long one. In fact, it’s a 24,850km round trip. A long way to travel to play a game of footy.
It’ll be hard for the teams travelling over to stay focused on the game they’ll play at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas this Sunday.
The Cronulla Sharks, Penrith’s opponent this weekend, are arriving in Vegas four days after every other team to avoid getting too distracted by the sights and sounds of the ‘Entertainment Capital of the World’.
There are just so many distractions wherever you look.
A once-in-a-lifetime experience, the bright lights of Vegas can mesmerise and take away your focus.
I mean we’ve already seen plenty of photos of Panthers players enjoying the sights and sounds of a city striving to become the ‘Sporting Capital of the World’.
Yep, plenty to see and do, plenty of fun to be had, before it’s time to get down to business. As Penrith captain Isaah Yeo said last month:
“You have the excitement that you’re jetting over to the other side of the world…but you’re still going over to try and win competition points”.
The Panthers learned a lot after travelling to the UK last year to play Wigan in the World Club Challenge, a game they lost 16-12.
They’re determined not to lose on such a big stage again.
They will train and train hard once the first few days of sight-seeing are over. Every minute of the trip has been meticulously planned by Ivan Cleary and the coaching staff.
Every drill, every meal, every training session.
There’s a lot at stake after all. Two competition points are on offer and no team wants to go all the way to such a showpiece event just to lose.
What a sombre 12,425km, 17-hour trip home that would be!
There are plenty of questions being asked of Penrith going into this match however.
How will they perform when most of the starting team hasn’t even played in a proper trial? Will they be underdone? Will Nathan Cleary’s shoulder hold up? What about Liam Martin’s toe? Dylan Edwards’ shoulder? Brian To’o’s hamstring?
The questions around this Panthers team are endless. It feels like being in Las Vegas might actually be a good thing for the boys.
They may be wide-eyed by the glitz and glamour of playing in the US but at least they won’t be distracted by the rugby league media asking them a hundred questions each day about the final make-up of the team.
One thing is certain however, the coaching staff will not gamble with anything which is uncertain.
Not even in Vegas, the ‘Gambling Capital of the World’.
Peter Lang
Peter Lang is an experienced sports writer, who has been covering rugby league for several decades. He first wrote Lang on League for the Weekender in the 1990s, and worked for Panthers on its famous Panthers Magazine for several years.