Tigers make history in USA
Comments
0
National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles' stadium will host the ground-breaking Independence Cup fixture between Leicester Tigers and the National Rugby Football League's Rough Riders.
This will be the first elite professional rugby match played in the United States by a professional American team and will take place on August 8.
The fixture will help launch the NRFL – the first American professional rugby championship – which begins in 2016.
The Tigers will face a Rough Riders team made up of former NFL athletes, College football players and collegiate, club and international rugby players, at Lincoln Financial Field, home of NFL's Philadelphia Eagles.
"We are excited to showcase the inaugural Independence Cup at Lincoln Financial Field," said Eagles president Don Smolenski.
"This match kicks off the first rugby game for an elite US team, the Rough Riders, against a historic rugby stalwart, the Leicester Tigers."
The match also stands as a chance for the Tigers to raise the profile of the Premiership in a potentially lucrative market.
"Rugby is making massive strides there and the fixture will provide an excellent platform for the home-based players, and also for our squad as they prepare for a new season," Tigers chief executive Simon Cohen told BBC.
ADVERTISEMENT
