Despite their scintillating form at Rugby League World Cup 2013, USA full-back Kristian Freed insists that the Tomahawks are not letting their sights wander anywhere but their next game, against Scotland at Salford City Stadium on Thursday (8.00pm).
In their debut World Cup, Terry Matterson’s side sit alongside defending world champions New Zealand and tournament favourites Australia as the in-form teams at RLWC2013 so far, though Freed is adamant that the Tomahawks are focused on nothing but themselves and their next fixture.
“We just have to physically recover from the Wales game and then there is no looking past Scotland,”said Freed. “We watched the Tonga v Cook Islands game as a team but for us there is no thinking past our next game at all, we are all thinking about Scotland.
“But then again, we also have keep thinking about our process and our game, and then about the outcome of the match later.
“We knew that Wales would have big support when we were preparing, we knew what we were coming into. We never think about the outcome or the other team, we just think about ourselves and our performance, and work our way through it that way.
“Any hype that is going on, we won’t listen to it, we will just keep trying to do our own thing and keep it in-house.”
Freed, who plays his club Rugby League in America for Connecticut Wildcats, is enjoying the journey that his team is currently experiencing, and believes that success in RLWC2013 will do nothing but help promote the game in the USA.
“It is just such a wild ride, in the team we have just got so much belief in ourselves and we just look to do the small things right,” said Freed. “We don’t give ourselves too high expectations, it is just getting through the whole process.
“It is very surprising to see so many USA fans around the grounds, but it is awesome. It gees us up when we see those American flags in the stands.
“We like to carry that on our shoulders, that we are representing Rugby League in America, we definitely want the game to grow over there.
“I think that we are doing the USA proud and I would like to think that this is going to get a lot of heads turning as we try to grow the game, for sure.”
USA head coach Terry Matterson has named his 19 man squad to play Scotland at Salford City Stadium on Thursday (20:00)
Bureta Faraimo
Kristian Freed
Michael Garvey
Roman Hifo
Daniel Howard
Stephen Howard
Judah Lavulo
Haveatama Luani
David Marando
Clint Newton
Mark Offerdahl
Joseph Paulo
Matthew Petersen
Edward Pettybourne
Craig Priestly
Tuisegasega Samoa
Matthew Shipway
Les Soloai
Taylor Welch
