Priestly Helps Lead U.S. To Quarterfinals Of Rugby League World Cup

This past summer, Hampton Bays resident Craig Priestly, along with Sag Harbor resident Teddy Grabowski, created a rugby league team, the Southampton Dragons, in hopes of furthering the sport not only on the East End but throughout the entire country.In the late summer months, after the Dragons’ inaugural season ended in the semifinals of the American National Rugby League, Priestly was named to America's first ever Rugby League World Cup team, the USA Tomahawks. The World Cup is taking place in the United Kingdom this year.Rugby league is a little more strategy-based than the more common and slightly more popular rugby union and is similar to American football. Each team in rugby league gets six tackles per possession before it must score. There are 13 players on the field for each team, compared to the 15 that are on the field for each team in rugby union. And there are no “rocks” or “mauls”—which is when the players get in tight and fight for ball possession in rugby union. When a player is tackled in rugby union, play is stopped momentarily while the defensive team retreats 10 meters. While there is more stop-and-go during rugby league, it tends to move faster and have more contact than rugby union.Priestly, who works as a trainer at Core Dynamics Gym in Water Mill, traveled with the Tomahawks to France in mid-October for a warm-up with the Frenchmen before World Cup pool play began on October 26. On Wednesday, October 30, the Tomahawks won their first ever World Cup match in a 32-20 victory over Cook Islands at Bristol Memorial Stadium in England. Priestly scored what wound up being the game-winning try and many U.K. media outlets deemed the victory a historical feat for the U.S.The Tomahawks then carried that success over in a 24-16 victory over host Wales at Glyndwr University Racecourse Stadium in Wrexham, Wales. The U.S. suffered its first loss in its final match of pool play on Thursday, November 7, 22-8, to Scotland at Salford City Stadium in Eccles, England.The Tomahawks won their group though, and advanced to the quarterfinals on Saturday, November 16, in Wrexham, Wales, against Priestly's home country of Australia, the top-ranked team in the tournament. If the Tomahawks could somehow defeat the Australians, they would advance to the semifinals on November 23 at Wembley Stadium.For more information on the Rugby League World Cup, go to www.rlwc2013.com.