Australia's Aaron Woods fends off England's Elliott Whitehead during their Rugby League World Cup game in Melbourne on Friday. Photo / AP.
Rugby league has made the New York Times.
What a time to be alive.
But not everyone is thrilled by the coverage our great game received over the weekend.
Over the weekend a story surfaced online where Victor Mather of the Times essentially described the game as an obscure, under-achieving variant of rugby.
As league aficionado Steve Mascord pointed out in his 'Set of six' column for Fairfax Media, ARL commissioner Megan Davis Tweeted that the article was "piss poor".
You can read the NYT article here.
The writer declares that league "has spent much of its history trying to keep up with its more famous counterpart."
That angered some fans.
While the article caught the ire of many punters, the columnist goes on to be quite complementary of the game.
"The future could be bright for rugby league. In some ways, league is more like American football.
After breaking down the similarities between the two codes, Mather celebrates the success of the Toronto Wolfpack and wraps up the article with a positive outlook on the future growth of the code.
"The World Cup will be coming to the United States and Canada in 2025," Mather writes.
"If North Americans do embrace the speedy form of the game, rugby league may have the last laugh after all."
On the surface, the Warriors draw for the 2025 season is quite kind