Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys was given the presidential treatment with a police escort for him and other VIPs to Allegiant Stadium before the NRL double header on Sunday (Australian time).
NRL bosses, staff and media executives boarded two buses decked out with executive seats for the drive to the venue known here as the “Death Star” and were joined by 10 police motorcycles stopping traffic along the way.
“I asked them if they can come home with me to help me out getting along Victoria Road,” V’landys said.
The NRL posted a record crowd in Las Vegas on its third year playing round-one matches in Sin City, announcing an attendance figure of 45,719.
That was just above last year’s crowd of 45,209 and up on 40,746 from the game’s first expedition to Nevada in 2024, although the many of the healthy contingent of fans of world champions Hull KR had left the venue by the time Canterbury and St George Illawarra took the field in the main act of the night.
You could hardly blame them. They were blown away 58-6 by Leeds.
Champions Club chockers with movers and shakers
There was a who’s who of the rugby league world in the Champions Club at Allegiant, the ground-level corporate zone where players walk directly past attendees as they make their way to and from the dressing-rooms, much as they do in the cricket at Lord’s.
In addition to officials from the competing teams those present included Manly chairman Scott Penn and chief executive Jason King, Gold Coast Titans owner Rebecca Frizelle, Sydney Roosters supremo Nick Politis, board members Mark Bouris and Andrew Jolliffe and CEO Joe Kelly, and Perth Bears directors Joe Hockey and John Dumesny and PNG Chiefs CEO Lorna McPherson and general manager Michael Chammas.
Also there were Dragons legend Craig Young and Bulldogs premiership winner Peter Mortimer, former grand final referee and now Queensland sports minister Tim Mander and V’landys’ fellow ARL commissioners, among them Balmain great Wayne Pearce.
Title-winning ex-Canterbury captain and former Bulldogs chairman George Peponis was also at the game, bringing along his two US-based sons.
Airline boss reassures nervous fans
Cameron Wallace, Qantas’ CEO of International and Freight, was also in the room and assured the thousands of rugby league fans in Las Vegas that the strikes on Iran and their regional impact would pose no problems to them getting home from the US from Monday.
“There are no changes to our flights from the US. They’ll be going straight through,” Wallace said.
Flemming in league of her own
Former track and field queen Jane Flemming was another high-profile guest in the Champions Club.
A recent addition to the board of Racing NSW, which V’landys heads in his day job, she flew in from Los Angeles, where she had been as the Australian Olympic Committee launched its “Road to LA28” campaign. Flemming is president of Australian Athletics and still the Australian record-holder in the heptathlon, which she set when she won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 1990.
Sivo shows Eels what they’re missing
Maika Sivo has “no regrets” about leaving the NRL and Parramatta after reminding fans he remains one of the best wingers with four tries for Leeds.
Playing his second game since knee surgery, Sivo was simply too hard to handle for Hull KR.
Four-try Leeds hero Maika Sivo.Credit: Getty Images
The Fijian flyer was lured to England by former Eels coach Brad Arthur. With Arthur linked to the PNG Chiefs, and Sivo off contract at the end of next season, he said he would see how his body was holding up before making a call on his next deal.
Leeds fans were in full voice against Hull KR, but it’s a shame they are yet to embrace the Sivvvvvooo chant Parramatta fans yelled every time he scored.
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