Talkin Sport - International Rugby League

The Jacksonville Axemen will be hosting the Jamaican Rugby League Team in an effort to help spread the sport of Rugby League around the world and to increase the exposure to the City of Jacksonville as a great supporter of the sport here in the USA.

The Jacksonville Axemen will be hosting and are helping fund a representative team from Jamaica for 4 days over the Aug 4th weekend and will be providing the visiting team with the chance to have a real international tour and training camp prior to the game. The team will arrive into Florida on Aug 2nd and the Axemen will transport them to Jacksonville from their arriving airport to help keep travel cost to a minimum for the visiting team.

The Jamaicans will go into a mini training camp all day on Friday to get ready for the match on Saturday August 4th, that will be held at Hodges Stadium at UNF, with kickoff at 5.45pm. They Axemen have outlined a schedule for the visitors to allow them to get plenty of training opportunities, a gym session and some relaxation time before the game. The tour is being designed to allow them to experience the sport at the most professional level the Axemen can provide.

Co-Founder and coach for the Jacksonville Axemen, Spinner Howland was very excited at this development and said, “Last year the Axemen hosted Jamaican player Damon Gayle for some of our season and his efforts got us interested in the sport being played so close to Florida. When you look at a map, they are closer to us than our closest USA team. After Damon left us we started some great communications with the administrators of the game in Jamaica and we have finally been able to offer them this opportunity. We are very fortunate to have the support of our sponsors, our fans, and the great City of Jacksonville. As an organization we are committed to exposing as many people as possible to Rugby League and we have no problem investing some of our own money and time to allow us to host such a high profile game to achieve that goal”.

The Axemen have had discussions with the AMNRL and the Fairfax Eagles, who they were scheduled to play on August 4th, and all have agreed to work the domestic schedule around this international match to allow the Axemen to proceed with this venture. The willingness of both the AMNRL and all the domestic clubs goes to show that everyone involved with the sport in the USA is prepared to do whatever it takes to be apart of its Worldwide expansion.

This game will bring the spotlight on the City of Jacksonville as a great home for Rugby League in the USA and will allow all the Axemen supporters a chance to see true international Rugby League in their home stadium. All the Axemen sponsors will also be included in the game and they will all get the same amount of exposure as if it was a domestic game. They get the international spotlight just as much as the players do. Axemen season ticket holders will get admission to this game for no additional cost and the game day entry and all other pricing will stay the same as domestic games.

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Tim Cahill, Lucas Neil and Dale Walker