The Canberra Raiders have finally found someone to blow their custom-made viking horn in Las Vegas, after UFC Dana White knocked-back their invitation earlier in the week.
Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Tyler Manoa will blow the horn for Canberra’s season opener against the Warriors at Allegiant Stadium on Saturday (Las Vegas time).
Tyler Manoa of the Las Vegas Raiders will blow the Canberra Raiders’ Viking horn before their match against the New Zealand Warriors.
Raiders chief executive Don Furner said the club were eager to get a player from the club that’s Canberra’s namesake.
“We’re really excited today, we were really trying hard to get a Las Vegas Raiders player to be our ambassador. Of course, our name came from the Raiders, the American NFL team, and we’re lucky enough today to secure Tyler Mano, who is of Polynesian heritage which makes it even more relevant,” Furner said.
“We’ve always had a proud history of Polynesian players with our club … so we welcome him here tomorrow to start the viking clap, hopefully with 60,000 people … there is a big Polynesian population that are playing gridiron now, Jordan Mailita, Papa [Josh Papali’i] would have been a good NFL player if he had grown up here.”
Furner made the official announcement at the team’s walkthrough of Allegiant Stadium on Saturday morning, where he was joined by Raiders duo Josh Papali’i and Simi Sasagi.
The walkthrough was the player’s first and only opportunity to walk on the field, and goal kickers were allowed a half hour of practice.
“A bit different to Aussie rugby fields, obviously a bit shorter, the 10 [metre line] is actually not a 10, obviously going to be a real physical game tomorrow, looking forward to it,” Papali’i said.
The Raiders’ new viking horn in production in the USA.Credit: Canberra Raiders
Canberra commissioned a new, American-made horn for their season opener, which cost in excess of $10,000 to make.
A Los Angeles-based firm was tasked with building a new 3.6-metre, 36-kilogram instrument for the occasion because it was too difficult to transport the one used at home games in the nation’s capital.
The Herald’s travel expenses to Las Vegas have been partly funded by the NRL.
