For the first time on American territory, the National Rugby League (NRL) will launch its season on Saturday. The match can be seen live on FS1 and the FOX Sports app.

Claiming to be among the most viewed shows on Australian television, the immensely popular NRL draws well over 100 million people annually. Now, a sizable American audience will have the opportunity to see the action-packed sport when the historic season-opening doubleheader takes place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

To give Americans who aren't familiar with rugby a flavor of what to anticipate, "FOX & Friends Weekend" met with members of four rugby clubs in the New York region before the doubleheader.

The guys, who were a mix of team captains and coaches from the rugby clubs in New York, Suffolk, Rockaway, and Long Island, were asked by co-host Pete Hegseth what new viewers might expect when they watch the sport on FS1. The co-host remarked, "It looks like sports we're familiar with, but not the same."

Wesley Bybel, the team captain, remarked, "I wanna say, you're going to be looking for nonstop action, hard hits, and a good time."

"Max, what attracts guys in America, in Long Island, New York to rugby?" co-host Will Cain posed to the Long Island club coach. Max Witowski stated that he finally got into it because of his passion for football.

"Well, I wanted to play football and started playing in college, but I didn't quite make the squad. And a guy invited me to play rugby. I mentioned that I had never truly understood the sport previously. He added that he went to the rugby field shortly after and began playing, continuing to do so for the next fifteen years.

Where the sport is most popular, co-hosts Dan Bamford, an Englishman who coaches one of the New York groups, informed them. He said, "It's played all across Europe, mainly in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland."

"So we're taught from a very young age, from like six, seven, or eight, and then we carry on all the way through, to adulthood," Bamford said.

After that, the Englishman was asked to describe a drill that a few rugby players were doing off-camera. "What's happening is that you have to pass the ball backward in rugby," he stated. As a result, they're currently only practicing three-on-two since you have to play both sides of the ball. You engage in both offensive and defensive play."

He went on, "So what they're doing at the moment, you have three attackers taking on two defenders, trying to move the ball past them in a traditional sense."

The men also addressed some of Hegseth and Cain's more detailed queries regarding rugby, such as what goes on in the "scrum" and where the team's larger players typically play.

In rugby, the "try zone" is the equivalent of the end zone. Bamford clarified that teams want their speedier players, the men "with the wheels," on the edge of the field so they can take the ball "into the try zone."

The idea that these guys play without helmets or protectors astounded Hegseth. Witowski stated, "It is a game for all shapes and sizes, whether you're big, small, or in-between, you can come down and play and have a good time." Then Wesley said, "You have to have the heart."

"That's how football ought to look," Cain said.

The co-host also mentioned how many injuries are related to the sport. However, he said there are fewer concussions than in American football.

"You tend to develop better technique playing rugby than in football because you don't feel indestructible the way you do when you're wearing football helmet, pads, and everything," said Ciaran O'Hara, one of the captains, in explaining this.

At 9:30 p.m. ET, the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles take on the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and at 11:30 p.m. ET, the Sydney Roosters take on the Brisbane Broncos. The Australian actor Russell Crowe voiced a promotional film for the NRL earlier this month on X, which provided a summary of the regulations.

According to Crowe, a co-owner of South Sydney, "probably the fastest, most aggressive ball-in-hand football game that exists."

The "Gladiator" actor clarified that in an 80-minute game split into two halves, each team has 13 players on the field and just four on the bench. The game is played using an oval-shaped ball on a pitch that is 100 meters (about 110 yards) in length.

Rugby differs from American football in that players can tackle, pass, and kick the ball as needed, and there are no timeouts pads, or helmets. Teams have six tackles instead of four to try to advance the ball forward, and there are more possibilities for points, ranging from one to four.

End//voice7news.tv