A video, produced by America’s Cup Bermuda Ltd, featuring professional rugby players visiting the Island taking on America’s Cup sailors in a competition of endurance and strength, has been viewed nearly 20,000 times in its first 24 hours on the internet.

The “Grind Off” took place in the Oracle Team’s gym in Dockyard earlier this month, when players from the touring Harlequins Rugby team visited the base and put two of their athletes up against sailors from Oracle and Artemis Racing.

“This is a great example of the type of international exposure and engagement that a top tier event like the America’s Cup creates for Bermuda,” Mike Winfield, ACBDA chief executive, said. “It’s fun, it’s exciting and its being viewed by thousands of people around the world and not only fans of rugby and sailing.”

Additionally, the ACBDA Facebook post has been shared more than 200 times in places as far away as Japan.

“As you can see in the video, there was a lot of sweat and muscle combined with some lively competition and banter,” Winfield said. “The second of the two tests featured Harlequin’s strength coach Adam Bishop, who competed in the World’s Strongest Man Competition this year.”

The final result saw the sailors win comfortably in the 10-minute time trial, but Bishop prevailed in the maximum power challenge.

“I think the overriding result was respect earned and given,” Winfield said.