FIFA’s Club World Cup bombed spectacularly in America, and World Rugby should take note. Stadiums averaging just 52% capacity, despite promises of sellouts, should be a massive wake-up call for the 2031 Rugby World Cup. With the first Rugby World Cup in a country that isn’t mad about rugby approaching, World Rugby needs a complete marketing revolution.

Americans respond to one thing: spectacle. If you’re not making jaws drop, you’re wasting everyone’s time. The Club World Cup struggled because it treated Americans like they owed football something. They don’t. Rugby needs to earn every eyeball by being undeniably, impossibly entertaining.

Forget everything World Rugby knows about traditional marketing — “the gentleman’s game,” the “values” chat, the focus on teamwork and respect. When it comes to marketing sports, Americans have a completely different playbook.

To make rugby talkable in the U.S., it needs a “Jonah Lomu.” During his era, he became the most recognisable rugby player in the world, and this even filtered into the American media. At 6′5″ and 18 stone (252 lbs.), running like a sprinter, he was everything Americans understand: bigger, faster, stronger.

Look at the Six Nations stars that rugby showcased on Netflix’s “Six Nations: Full Contact”: Finn Russell (5′10″, 176.3 lbs.), Marcus Smith (5′8″, 165.3 lbs.), Stephen Varney (5′7″, 158.7 lbs.). These are good rugby players, but they look like accountants next to American athletes. Compare Russell to NFL quarterbacks like Josh Allen (6′5″, 238 lbs.) or NBA stars like LeBron James (6′9″, 113kg).

Americans want stars who look like they were built in a laboratory — think........

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