- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Jarryd Hayne’s signing with the San Francisco 49ers is a feel-good story for everyone, except Parramatta fans and those Aussies who are tired of hearing what a great rugby player he is.
The 49ers’ own Twitter account looked like most American reports of Hayne’s signing:
Rugby star @jarrydhayne_1 announced his intention to sign with the #49ers.
http://t.co/NhKSuQeZVs pic.twitter.com/pwx4gP4z9v
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) March 3, 2015
This ‘code confusion’ shines a light on just how hard it can be to promote Australian sports in the United States.
The good news if you’re an NRL fan is that at least your sport is being confused with one that is somewhat similar and is only missing the word ‘league’.
In comparison, imagine the AFL fan (or executive) who watches the Aussie Rules drop punt used in an NFL or college football game, only to hear American announcers call it a “rugby punt”.
I cannot defend my countrymen on their lack of awareness of non-US based sports – after all, this is a nation that has been known to confuse Australia with Austria. But the constant use of ‘rugby’ as a default word does actually makes sense and certainly isn’t the result of intense lobbying by the ARU.
Rugby union has been played in the United States since the 1800s and major universities like Cal-Berkeley have strong, nationally known programs. The sport is making inroads into American public high schools and is played at a high level in places like Utah, which has a large Polynesian population.
More importantly, the addition of Rugby Sevens to the Rio Olympics has resulted in games being shown on NBC Sports, which creates a more pervasive overall awareness of rugby among US sports fans.
Which brings us to rugby league. To those in the US, the name of the sport itself sounds like an actual league of rugby teams (‘the rugby league’) and to further illustrate the confusion, if you read the 49ers press release, the headline calls Hayne a “rugby star” but the article itself calls him a “rugby league star”.
Ironically, rugby league is the most similar of the Australian codes to American football (e.g. six tackles = four downs) and those neophytes in the US who are exposed the game often understand it and appreciate it more than Australian rules football. But NRL matches have been tucked away on a channel called Fox Soccer Plus, which requires an extra monthly fee and is mostly for expats and aficionados.
Fox Soccer Plus is also home to the AFL in the United States and that league may have an even harder task than that of the NRL. The acronym ‘AFL’ in the US means many things, none of them relating to overhead marks and hand passes. There’s the Arena Football League, the AFL/CIO labour union, and the defunct American Football League, which merged with the NFL and gave us the Patriots, Chiefs, Raiders, etc.
So can this lack of awareness be rectified? Hard to say. For one thing, I’m not sure the NRL and AFL really care that much about the American market. Anything they get out of the US – including ex-basketballing ruckmen – is a bonus.
I do know that the AFL players who punted in the NFL – guys like Sav Rocca and Darren Bennett – have done their best to promote their game, while Russell Crowe’s appearances on American late night talk shows are often accompanied by Rabbitohs’ jackets and explanations of rugby league.
For now, I’m afraid NRL fans will just have to bite their tongues and appreciate the fact that Jarryd Hayne has taken the first steps towards a remarkable sporting transition.
If he defies the odds and makes the 49ers’ roster, perhaps then he can start educating American folk on the differences between ‘rugby’ and ‘league’.
On the other hand, he’ll have plenty on his plate and being called a ‘rugby star’ will be the least of his worries.
Hey, supercoach? Choose your own ultimate NFL team and compete with other players for cash prizes in daily competitions on any match. If you’re after the best odds on the NFL, PlayUp is your best bet. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.