American Joe Eichner blazing rugby league trail with Toronto Wolfpack
Coach Paul Rowley has decided to field his North American internationals this weekend
Having beaten the No. 2 team in their division by 68 points last time out, the unbeaten Toronto Wolfpack look to make short work of the 14th-ranked side when the 1-7-0 Coventry Bears visit Saturday.
Not coincidentally, Wolfpack coach Paul Rowley has decided to field his North American internationals this weekend.
"They'll all play," Rowley said.
To be fair, only Americans Ryan Burroughs and Joe Eichner fit that bill. Australians Rhys Jacks and Tom Dempsey play internationally for Canada thanks to their bloodlines.
Eichner, who made the team via the trials process, and Dempsey are slated to make their debuts.
Rowley is playing the long game, knowing the competition in England's third tier of rugby is league well below his team's standard. The fully professional Wolfpack have dominated their semi-pro opposition so far, winning all eight games with a 482-73 overall scoring edge.
Toronto, rugby's first transatlantic team, is 2-0-0 at home where it has battered the visitors 132-14.
Coventry, admitted into the third tier in 2015, looks to be more cannon fodder. The Bears, just two spots off the bottom of the 16-team league, have been outscored 324-140 this season.
The Bears have lost three straight in the league and conceded 40-plus points five times. They were knocked out of two cup competitions at the first hurdle.
"Statistically I won't lie, it wouldn't look good from a Coventry point of view," Rowley said of Saturday's game.
'Get a harsh lesson'
"A game will always provide the supporters with big hits either side and moments of entertainment," he added. "What we usually find is we're better than these teams not because we're any bigger or stronger. It's usually because there's speed of thought and awareness. We think a little bit quicker.
"You underestimate opposition players and you usually get a harsh lesson. So we'll be tuned in."
Plus teams are always up to play the new, well-funded kids on rugby league's block.
"Everybody who comes here, they want to knock us off our perch," said Rowley. "They're a little bit better than they normally are."
A visit to a Wolfpack practice offers up another difference. Toronto's players look like they live in the gym. There are enough six-packs on show to fuel a fraternity party.
Eichner, a 25-year-old from Geneva, Fla., is the last man standing from the trials the Wolfpack held in Canada, the U.S. and Jamaica to unearth talent.
Eighteen trialists went to England for a camp with Eichner, Jamaican Nathan Campbell and Canadian Quinn Ngawati eventually earning contracts. Campbell is no longer with the team and the teenage Ngawati is seen as one for the future.
Chad Bain, the other Canadian signed, is also no longer in the picture. Team officials deemed he had too much to learn in the sport.
Given that, Eichner's progress from the University of North Florida where he first played rugby is remarkable.
'A dream come true'
It's a long way from a farm an hour north of Orlando to the north of England, where most of the Wolfpack players live in the heart of rugby league.
"This is kind of a dream come true ... it's been [an] amazing experience so far," said the soft-spoken forward.
Rowley was won over by Eichner's attitude, his commitment and physical gifts.
"Technically he's way off our boys," he said. "But we'll put him in and see what we can make of him."
When Eichner is on the field, Rowley says the other players have to serve as coaches to help him.
Eichner lives with Burroughs, Dempsey and Jacks in a cavernous old house in Huddersfield when the team is in England. Bain and Campbell also lived there for a while.
A project engineer by trade, Eichner gave up his day job when the Wolfpack offered him a contract. He was working at the Breakers, a luxury resort in Palm Beach that often hosts the NHL's top brass for meetings.
The six-foot-two 215-pounder played baseball growing up but gave it up when he went to college in Jacksonville. He was looking for another sport to play in his spare time when he was walking through campus and saw a few people throwing a rugby ball around.
They convinced him to come to practice and he soon found himself playing rugby union regularly. Then he discovered rugby league, playing for the Jacksonville Axemen, and was seen at a North vs. South all-star game in Tampa by the Wolfpack, which was holding a trials session the next day.
"It was pretty rough the next day waking up after playing a game and going right into a four-, five-hour-long tryout but it was good," he said.
A No. 8 in union, he plays back row in league.
Eichner, whose brief rugby career has already included recovery from a torn anterior cruciate ligament, is aware he has only taken baby steps so far in his adopted sport.
In addition to learning the game, his biggest challenge may be understanding the thick accents of his English teammates.
"Some of the players are crystal clear but other ones like (winger) Jonny Pownall, I can't understand him at all," said Eichner. "Let alone on the field when we're breathing hard. But he can be talking to me in a quiet room and I can't understand a word he's saying."
"It's getting easier," he added.
Watch live
All of the Wolfpack's Kingstone Press League 1 matches throughout the 2017 season will be live streamed and made available on demand at CBCSports.ca, as well as the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices within Canada.
Live stream schedule
- Coventry Bears at Toronto Wolfpack, Saturday June 3 (4:30 p.m. ET)
- Toronto Wolfpack at South Wales Ironment, Saturday June 10 (5:00 p.m. ET)
- Toronto Wolfpack at Workington Town, Sunday June 18 (10 a.m. ET)
- Hunslet RLFC at Toronto Wolfpack, Saturday June, 24 (7 p.m. ET)
- York City Knights at Toronto Wolfpack, Saturday July 1 (7 p.m. ET)
- All Golds at Toronto Wolfpack, Saturday July 8 (7 p.m. ET)
- Hemel Stags at Toronto Wolfpack, Saturday July 15 (7 p.m. ET)
Super 8s rounds
- At, TBD – Sunday July 30, 2017, Time TBD
- At, TBD – Sunday August 6, 2017, Time TBD
- At, TBD – Sunday August 13, 2017, Time TBD
- Home, TBD – Saturday August 19, 2017, Time TBD
- Home, TBD – Saturday September 2, 2017, Time TBD
- Home, TBD – Saturday September 9, 2017, Time TBD
- Home, TBD – Saturday September 16, 2017, Time TBD