Southern Orcas look to untapped international regions to bolster their chances of NRL entry

In a fresh bid to secure entry into the NRL, an ambitious Christchurch expansion franchise will go where no club has been in 116 years of rugby league – Hawaii and the Caribbean.

Southern Orcas managing director Andrew Chalmers will start a development program early next year which will span across Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Solomon Island, Vanuatu, French Polynesia and expand to Hawaii and the Caribbean. Picture: NewsWire

An NRL bid consortium is ready to break into two international player markets where no rugby league club has gone in the game’s 116-year history – Hawaii and the Caribbean.

In an unprecedented move, the Christchurch-based Southern Orcas will start a development program early next year which will span across Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Solomon Island, Vanuatu, French Polynesia and expand to Hawaii and the Caribbean.

“The number of players that would be suited to our game would be phenomenal,” said Orcas’ managing director, Andrew Chalmers.

“The Caribbean have absolutely fantastic athletes and Hawaii is a huge catchment area of athletes that would be suited to our sport – they just haven’t been exposed to it. It would help with the internationalisation of rugby league.”

Southern Orcas managing director Andrew Chalmers will start a development program early next year which will span across Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Solomon Island, Vanuatu, French Polynesia and expand to Hawaii and the Caribbean. Picture: NewsWire

The initiative will form part of the club’s expanded sports education pathways and be included in the Orcas’ bid for NRL inclusion.

“The Hawaiian breeding ground is untapped when it comes to rugby league – the athletes there are big and powerful and would be ideal for the NRL. This could be a historic move by the Orcas,” said former Australian NFL player Colin Scotts, who won a scholarship to play American football at the University of Hawaii during the early 1980s.

The Orcas remain a key candidate for inclusion in the NRL’s proposed 20-team competition and targeting players from Hawaii and the Caribbean could prove enormously productive, according to Chalmers.

“The Caribbean has absolutely fantastic athletes. When you think about the opportunities in and around the Caribbean, they are all running ten seconds (over 100 metres), and they’re the bad ones,” Chalmers said. “It’s about teaching them to play our sport.

“When you think of Caribbean athletes, you think about sprinting, NFL and basketball but this would be a great opportunity to integrate their DNA into our sport.

“It’s not just the Caribbean but through the Pacific Islands and then extend to Hawaii and the Caribbean. The success of Hawaiian athletes is phenomenal but they haven’t been exposed to rugby league.

Australia's former University of Hawaii footballers Paul Sironen and Colin Scott. Picture: Mark Evans

“This is a great opportunity to expose these young men and women to the opportunities that exist in a great sport such as rugby league. It would create a new benchmark in terms of rugby league.”

“We would use a sports education program to develop those athletes through the Orcas sports academy. You’d be identifying all those key athletes at aged 14 and 15 into a focused sports education program, all built around rugby league.

“Our thinking is to offer a sports education model to attract them to rugby league. We need to develop the pathways domestically and internationally.”

Elite players would be developed and identified at ages 14 and 15 before being relocated to a high performance program in New Zealand aged 16.

The Orcas plan to launch their pathway and development academy in February next year.

“The target ages would be 14 or 15 – that’s your key development age,” Chalmers said.

“We would develop them in their countries and islands – they would need their families and support – and then the next level of development would be relocation to New Zealand and into a high performance system.

“That’s when you can start to build all the armoury needed for playing a collision sport like rugby league.

“We want to broaden the pathways. There are a number of phenomenal athletes that haven’t been able to access pathways to reach their potential in rugby league. We will put pathways into the islands.”

The Orcas hope to be the NRL’s 20th side behind the Western Bears and PNG, who will formally be announced on Thursday.