Brad Fittler has shut down concerns over the size of the field in Las Vegas, urging NRL clubs to ‘stop thinking about it’ ahead of the season opener.
Allegiant Stadium will host a double-header on Sunday (AEDT), but the dimensions of the field will be smaller than the regulation fields used in Australia.
The width will be 63 metres as opposed to 68 metres, while the length of the field has also been reduced to 95 metres.
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But according to the Roosters legend, the four teams in action shouldn’t be concerned and pointed out Penrith’s struggles in their recent World Club Challenge loss in England.
“Every team I understand have trained on those dimensions … every club has done their due diligence,” Fittler said on Wide World Of Sports’ Freddy and The Eighth.
“You can’t think about it too much – I think Penrith went into that game over there [in England] thinking about those in-goals too much and they kept running the ball on tackle five and they ended up scoring their try by kicking the ball.
“Stop thinking about it – the game is what it is, it will be shorter. At the end of the day, I don’t think it makes a difference to the result at all.”
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Andrew Johns also expects the players to adapt quickly to the new conditions.
“When you play in England on the soccer fields over there, they are a bit shorter and you just adapt, you get through it,” he said.
“The in-goals for kickers, the difference is you don’t kick for the in-goal, you kick for the tryline. The width is gonna be a little bit [of an issue], but they will adapt.”
South Sydney and Manly will square off in the first game, before premiership heavyweights the Broncos and Roosters play each other immediately after.