A few days before the NRL’s Las Vegas quadruple-header kicked off, New Zealand Rugby revealed the Ireland-All Blacks Test in Chicago in November had already sold more than 50,000 tickets despite being on sale for only a week. Ireland and the All Blacks are going to easily sell out the 61,500 capacity Soldier Field – they could probably fill an 80,000 stadium – which means a tidy profit for both parties and puts the 45,000 crowd in Vegas into context.

Rugby is clearly well ahead of rugby league in the USA, and their domestic competition, Major League Rugby, recently announced a broadcasting deal with ESPN. But does this mean that rugby has cracked the USA, or achieved the administrators’ dream of securing a small slice of a big market? No way. Former USA Rugby chief executive Ross Young, now World Rugby’s general manager of US operations for the World Cup in 2031, once candidly told the Herald that the key to unlocking that complex market was getting into the college sports system – and specifically getting fully funded programs across the US network.

The Panthers celebrate in Las Vegas. Will the NRL’s second foray into the US have any real impact there?Credit: Getty Images

Rugby hasn’t got that – and even the World Cup in the USA,........

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