Clint Newton has called for the NRL to take the lead in promoting rugby league in the United States to ensure the game properly takes advantage of the interest generated by Jarryd Hayne's NFL conversion.
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Hayne has played four games for San Francisco since making the switch from the Parramatta Eels and has shown that he is not out of place in gridiron. The two-time Dally M medal winner's journey has captured the imagination of Americans, giving the NRL valuable exposure to a wider audience.
Recently retired Newcastle forward Newton, a representative of the USA Tomahawks international side, is currently the boss of the Rugby League Players' Association. Speaking as a former player who has resided in the States, the 34 year old urged the NRL to badge and provide guidance to the USA Rugby League administration to take advantage of the momentum generated by Hayne's exploits.
"We need to revisit how we engage and capture that audience. When you have a population of more than 300 million, if you only capture half a per cent of that audience it blows anything out of the water we can create here in Australia," Newton said.
"The biggest thing is giving them an opportunity to view the game. I think the game could invest in trying to capture that audience by investing in putting a CEO in over there and getting their competition running right, by putting in good governance and a strategic plan for them moving forward.
"They could put the NRL logo on their jerseys and competition so the governing body and teams can leverage off that brand, which is very strong, the strongest rugby league brand in the world.
"Rugby league is a collisions sport and they love that. It would be incredibly disappointing to see a player drain going towards the NFL, but with what Jarryd has been able to do league will be spoken about over there.
"We can show a country like America to show just how good our product is."
Newton pointed to the way rugby union was beginning to be played at college level, capitalising on the interest generated by sevens tournaments.
"I'd love them to potentially put together a Nines tournament using the current teams in the American competition," he said.
"They could use recently retired players to go over as part of a travelling roadshow. They would get money to go over to help coach and train some of the current players and coaches.
"That way you're taking it state to state over a period of a couple of months when the NFL season isn't on to generate some interest.
"In a perfect world we'd already making those strides forward to make the most of what Jarryd has been able to do, which is incredibly brave and an amazing achievement.
"We should be leveraging the fact that this is a guy who has come from our code."
The NRL has recently flagged the prospect of taking a game - potentially a trial, competition or Origin fixture - to America. Newton has been in talks with the the governing body for several months about taking a lead in the running of the game in the United States. It is only in recent times that the governing body has revisited the issue.
"There's a huge pool of talent there that misses out on the opportunity to play NFL," he said.
"It's about trying to capture that. You only have to look at the sheer size of the market in America. We should be leveraging off the brand Jarryd is building there."
