Podcaster urges Tigresses and Roots RL to play at London Nines

By Seb Sternik

In particular, the conversation surrounded a possible ‘Clash of the Titans’ style encounter between the Castleford Tigers Women and Roots RL at the 2021 London Nines tournament.

Roots RL is a non-profit organization which was set up to give players of African origin an opportunity to play rugby.

The Roots RL women’s side won the 2019 London Nines tournament and took the crown away from Castleford who won the 2018 edition of the competition but didn’t compete again in 2019.  

The 2020 edition of London Nines has been cancelled for obvious reasons however, the attention is quickly turning to 2021.

Host of the podcast, Nate Gladdin, argues that if both teams confirm their attendance at the 2021 tournament, steps should be taken to organise a 13-a-side encounter between the two teams.

Here are a few extracts from the podcast.

“I really hope that happens. I’d really like to see those two teams competing against each other in a Nines tournament. What I’d like to say is this though… I would love to see if Roots RL and Castleford could play a game of thirteens.

“Because of the Roots RL’s African heritage, they have the ability to recruit players from all over the world. They have Jamaican players, Canadian players and American players that have and can play for them.

“They could go to England and it would be a really good way of doing some recruiting. Because Roots RL has the ability to use players from other places – because it’s about the African heritage – they could do something really special here.

“If London 2021 happens and Roots are there and Cas are there then obviously, you’ll see that in a Nines format. But I would love to see Roots RL take over maybe 15 players to play in the Nines. I would like to see them then take [players] from a couple of the clubs in the local area and add those players to their roster for the full 17-a-side game.

“I’d like to see New York RL back them for this. New York is trying to make a splash, trying to do things. You don’t always have to do it in New York but one of the best things that’s going to happen is by helping them, you would be helping them get attention which would then also bring you attention.

“You can take Roots RL and their backing they already have here in the United States, take that, team that with the New York side, team that with a couple of the local organisations.

“I would have Castleford women play Roots RL women on Thursday evening where it would be an actual event. Super League could host it. They could actually play it in the middle of the season. A women’s game in the middle of the season. Imagine that.

“You make it a game where you know you can put that on Facebook. You can put it on OurLeague App. I really think you can make this work. Talk about the celebration of the game of rugby league and how far it can take society."

You can listen to the full episode of the podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/rugby-league-in-america/id1371196473

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