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'Hollywood' helping to make rugby league hot in Chile

10th November, 2016
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10th November, 2016
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NRL players were in the news for all the wrong reasons again this week.

The much used phrase “rugby league, the gift that keeps on giving” received a solid workout on social media making me laugh and cringe at the same time.

An appeal on Facebook recently just made me smile.

Brisbane-based rugby league player Jonathan ‘Hollywood’ Espinoza was asking people to donate footy jerseys, footballs and any other gear they could spare. The gear was to give out at his rugby league skills clinics in Chile.

Espinoza, who has a Chilean mother and Nicaraguan father, is travelling around Chile for the first time “giving back to his heritage country” on a self-funded rugby league promotion and education tour with Ben Fisher who is also of Chilean heritage.

A burly prop forward, who caught the rugby league bug while attending University, Jono still turns out for the Griffith Uni Dragons in winter.

Espinoza and Fisher been have travelling southern Chile, sporting broad grins, cracking jokes and speaking their best Spanish for the last few days.”

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“I am giving back to my homeland because I had the privilege of playing for a mixed South and Central American team called the Latin Heat a few years ago.

“We are hoping to reach about 1500 people on this trip visiting schools and towns. Mainly in the Bio Bio region of Chile.

“A lot of these people are quite poor and don’t earn much money. It means a lot to them that we are running these clinics and spending time here.

“I just love to see the smiles on their faces when we hand out jerseys and other gear. It gives them a connection to rugby league and hopefully a passion to play.”

Naively when I first spoke to Jonathan I asked what the ‘Hollywood’ moniker was about.

If I had waited a few days longer it would have been obvious.

In the space of a few days, in between skills sessions, he has smashed out two radio show interviews and one TV appearance to promote the cause.

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Throw in numerous selfies, photos and Facebook live videos and it is not hard to see why mates give the 25-year-old marketing project manager a bit of ‘stick’.

“Yeah I love doing media interviews. It was something I started doing for the team (Latin Heat and Chile).That was how the Hollywood name began.”

Jonathan and Ben will play for their country on 12 November in a three way tournament involving Argentina, Brazil and the Chile to be held in Miramar Argentina

This will be the first time ‘Caciques Chilenos’ have played outside of Australia after defeating El Salvador 58-20 in their debut game in Sydney earlier this year. The first ever Latino 13-a-side international.

“We will have ten domestic players in the squad for Argentina which is exciting, Espinoza said.

“The feeling you get from representing your heritage and country is unbelievable, the pride you feel when you run onto the field in the jersey is something that no one can take off you.”

Chile was recently recognised by the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) world rankings and are currently ranked 34th.

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A domestic competition has started in the Bio Bio region largely due to the hard work of passionate local NRL fan Guillermo Artiga.

While the powers that be in Australian rugby league ponder how to allocate funding or expansion in Australia, there are disciples such as Jonathan all over the world doing good work for the love of the game

I am hearing about activity in countries such as Greece, Turkey, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Thailand, Serbia, Russia, USA, Canada and Lebanon to name just a few. In most cases it is run by volunteers and not funded.

Espinoza is confident that the 2025 Rugby League World Cup in the USA/Canada, with accompanying promotion in that part of the world, will have a ‘trickle down’ effect for Central and South America.

“By then rugby league will have evolved into a well known sport,” Espinoza said.

It might just be a ‘Hollywood’ production if true.

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