THE balance between enjoying what Las Vegas has to offer and remembering why they are there is certainly a difficult one for Warrington Wolves to strike.
And while we will not know for sure until after they have faced Wigan Warriors at Allegiant Stadium on Saturday, Josh Thewlis is confident they have got that balance right.
As well as training sessions and fan events, The Wire have had some down-time to take in the sights and sounds of Sin City ahead of their historic Super League Round Three clash.
As game day moves closer, however, focus will naturally switch to the task at hand but having seen and heard the number of Warrington fans who have travelled – said to number around 6,000 – Thewlis says the determination to get the job done has gone through the roof.
“It’s a massive opportunity,” he told the Warrington Guardian.
“We’re on the biggest stage in the world pretty much and everyone is looking at rugby league at the minute. I’m loving it.
“We got to see the city at the start of the week, spend some time together and enjoy ourselves, but as we get closer to the game we start switching on that little bit more.
“Seeing all the fans that have come out here that have spent so much money to come and watch us, we’re desperate to get the job done for them.
“It doesn’t go unnoticed and we’re going to feel it on Saturday afternoon. I can’t wait to get out there and have them right behind us.
“A lot of families have come out – for some of the Australian lads, there’s family members here they haven’t seen for some time.
“Some of my family are here too, so I want to make it worthwhile.”
In terms of capacity at least, the 65,000-seat home of NFL side the Las Vegas Raiders will not be the biggest stadium Thewlis has played in having turned out at Wembley in last year’s Challenge Cup Final.
In terms of being high-tech, however, it goes above and beyond with it’s part-synthetic pitch, retractable roof and climate-controlled surroundings.
“I’ve heard they can change the climates in there to suit us completely, so I’m looking forward to that and to getting on the pitch,” he said.
“Hopefully, I’ll have a line break or two to properly test it out! It’s certainly different to what we’re used to!”
