Gold Coast Titans prop James Iodice has more responsibility than most players in the Rugby League Commonwealth Championship, which start tomorrow afternoon at Broadwood Stadium in North Lanarkshire. Not only is he representing his NRL club and the country where he was born and raised, but will also be expected to help his inexperienced team-mates compete with England and Papau New Guinea.

The latter two are favourites to see off inexperienced Canada and South Africa to take the semi-final slots in Group B, while Australia and Wales will be expected to top Group A, ahead of Scotland and Jamaica.

Montreal-born Iodice, aged 19, is surrounded in the Canada team by players new to the league code, having played years of union or Canadian football and ice hockey. He played hockey too back in Montreal and when he moved to Gold Coast, aged 11. There he represented Australia – but claims that is not as impressive as it sounds.

“I’d say I was a good hockey player by Australian standards but very average in Canada!” he said, having trained at Broadwood this morning. “I only started playing rugby when I was 14 and I got in the Queensland Under-15s so you could say I was a quick learner. I played again at Under-16s but the last two and half years have been lost to injury. I did my ACL and then needed operations on both shoulders. Injuries have taken a big toll on my career. I’ve hardly played a game for the Titans so it’s great just to be playing again, and pretty special to be over here with Canada.”

Iodice, who trains full-time with the Titans and also recently earned his real estate licence,  flew from Brisbane to Singapore to the UK all by himself, while his team-mates headed across from Vancouver to London and spent a day on a coach up to Glasgow. Coach Andy Blackburn, a former England and Great Britain Students international with a strong record of representative coaching in union and league in British Columbia, believes his players just need time.

“We know we are going to be up against it as nearly all our team are rugby union players who I picked as I thought they’d make good league players,” said Blackburn, one of the few people to have played decent level union and league in 1980s England. “But some of them haven’t played any games. We have trained maybe eight or ten times but after a while training is no good – we need to play against some opposition but there is no-one to play against in Vancouver.  It’s like tip-toeing round the swimming pool over and over. Now we just need to jump in! When they do they’ll realise the water is not that cold!”

Blackburn, from a family with three generations of Leeds Rhinos players,  is treating his squad equally but expects Iodice to lead from the front.

“James is a great kid but he needs to be a leader out there and help the others to bring the best of them.”

In the RLCC2014 tournament at Cumbernauld’s Broadwood Stadium in North Lanarkshire, which is part of the Homecoming Scotland festival of events, Canada are in Group B where they will face Papua New Guinea, South Africa and England. They will return the next day for the play-offs and semi-finals stage. Entry on both days is FREE.

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