USA and Greece will make history when their men’s and women’s senior international sides meet for the first time as part of the NRL Las Vegas rugby league festival next year. The nations will play a double header on Friday 28 February 2025 before two NRL, one Super League and a clash between England and Australia women at the Allegiant Stadium the following day.

“Competing against Greece presents a significant opportunity for our players to test their skills,” said USA men’s head coach Sean Rutgerson, whose side will also travel to South Africa in December for a two-game series.

“This fixture is crucial for offering valuable experiences and growth opportunities to our homegrown talent, challenging them beyond the domestic environment. Additionally, the fixture supports our strategic goal of developing and expanding our domestic player pool, ensuring our competitiveness on the international stage, and contributing to the overall health and strength of our domestic competitions.”

Rutgerson added: “We can't wait to build on the Las Vegas event from last year. The support and excitement keep building.”  

USA women’s head coach, Ady Cooney, noted: “We’re super excited to play Greece. It’s going to be a great test for us and we’ll get to see how we stack up against a team that’s been competing regularly.”

Greece men’s head coach, Steve Georgallis, commented: “We’re really looking forward to travelling to Las Vegas. We are planning a training run with the newly formed Los Angeles Roosters, which our main sponsor Nick Politis is also involved with.

“With many of our players near retirement age, this is a great opportunity to have a look at our next generation of players coming through. We will be using a mixture of heritage and domestic players and have also had some that reside in the USA reaching out to us about being involved.”