Former professional rugby player takes Leeds Beckett University students to Las Vegas

Leeds Beckett students take on Vegas, but this time around, what happens in Vegas doesn’t just stay in Vegas.

The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which saw ten Leeds Beckett students take a trip to Las Vegas to assist in the organisation of a triple-header rugby event at the city’s Allegiant Stadium, was spearheaded by former professional rugby player James Webster.

James Webster is an ex-Hull half-back and current lecturer in sport management at Leeds Beckett University’s Carnegie School of Sport. During the trip to Vegas, he oversaw the team of students while they undertook their work for the event. This included taking on key operational roles in the build-up to the tournament, which was comprised of three matches between various teams from both the NRL and the Super League. A bit bigger than Leeds Varsity, then.

The event even saw Leeds Rhinos facing off against Hull Kingston Rovers, the latter of which James once captained himself. He is also the current head of its scholarship programme.

Speaking ahead of the trip, he said: “We spent some time with New Zealand Warriors last year and struck up a partnership with the NRL.”

He elaborated that the ten students would be working in different areas aligned with their degree specialisations, such as media, logistics, and setting up or administering the NRL Las Vegas Nines’ tournament.

James also explained how the whole idea was to provide students with practical learning experience as part of their university course, in an effort to get students ready for the real world outside of classrooms.

via Unsplash

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This initiative gives a platform to students from the sports marketing, sports science and sports business degree backgrounds to exhibit their skills and to achieve greater opportunities. James highlighted that he is very keen to provide the very best for his students, saying “it doesn’t get any bigger than this.”

Leeds Beckett has helped these expeditions previously with similar trips to Mumbai, India, Abu Dhabi, and the United Arab Emirates.

In the end, it was Leeds Rhinos who stormed to victory against Hull KR with a score of 58-6.

The team have won the Super League eight times since the competition’s inception. Leeds Rhinos play their home games at AMT Headingley Rugby stadium and share long-standing rivalries with Bradford Bulls, Castleford Tigers and Hunslet Rugby.

The Rhinos ended their 32-year wait for a league championship by winning in 2004.

Featured image via @leedsbeckettofficial

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