Latin Heat Rugby League

He was then put in touch with two other people who had expressed similar ideas - Matthew Brown, a contributor for Rugby League Planet website, and Rafael Attili, a Brazilian from São Paulo who had previously lived in New Zealand.

On a coaching course that year, Burgin met an NRL Development Officer, Daniel Sarmiento, who he later found out was Colombian-born and fluent in Spanish.

Together they started holding training sessions at Wests Mitchelton Rugby League Football Club for Brisbane's Latino community.

After Attili had to withdraw from further contribution due to rugby union commitments, Burgin, Brown and Sarmiento became the three main figures in the foundation of Latin Heat, and are now commonly credited as the three co-founders.

The attendees at the Latin Heat's first training session were Burgin, Sarmiento and two Colombian players - Fernando Villegas and Diego Lopez Pinto.

One Latin Heat player (Brandon Tobar) won Try of the Week on Channel 9's The Footy Show while playing for Penrith Juniors.

After again participating in the Wests Mitchelton Nines without much success, Latin Heat took on Portugal at Woolahra Oval in Sydney in October 2014 and won 40–6.

[2] The Latin Heat has helped increase Mexico Rugby League's international presence through social media and raising the profile of their organisation.

The Latin Heat are also attempting to send 1000 rugby league balls to key cities across South America in Spanish and Portuguese through the company Kickstarter.

[5] As of 2015 Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru and Uruguay have all been able to field standalone teams in sevens or nines tournaments.