Norwegian lad loving rugby league in Queensland

Rugby league is making a big impression on one traveller from Norway, who is currently spending some time in Queensland, Australia.

Lage Kamfjord is an 18-year-old student currently living in Toowoomba, as part of an exchange programme.

He will be in Australia for 11 months in total, and decided to have a crack at league while he was Down Under.

After being introduced to a sport about which he knew nothing just months ago, the youngster is now playing for Highfields Eagles in the TRL U-18 competition.

“I like Australia. This is my first trip to a Southern Hemisphere country and it’s been good,” Kamfjord told Australian newspaper The Chronicle.

“I’d never heard of rugby league before coming here, but my home-stay father (Neil Crotty) is a Broncos supporter and watching them play got me interested in the game.

“A lot of my friends at school play it as well and I went to see the Warriors and Gold Coast play in Toowoomba at the start of the year.

“I enjoy watching it and I thought I wouldn’t mind having a go at that.

“It looked like fun and I wanted to say I at least gave it a try

“I went on line and Googled ‘rugby league’ and found Highfields which is where I am living during my stay here.

“I made contact with the club on Facebook and they were really helpful.

“I explained I was new to Australia and have never played rugby league before, but they said that was okay they would be happy to teach me.”

His coach at Highfields U-18s, Ben Lorraway, believes that Kamfjord could turn into an important ambassador for the game in his Scandinavian homeland in future.

“Lage is fitting into the side really well,” Lorraway said.

“When he came to his first training session about six weeks ago, he didn’t even understand what a tackle was.

“We had to teach him from scratch. It was an experience for him learning how much more physical the game is compared to soccer.

“Lage just informed me that he has been approached by the Norway national under 20s team about making contact when he returns home.

“He’s a great kid and hopefully we can give him some more insight to the game he can take back to his home country.”