Las Vegas, a city built around extravagance and opulence, with the blinking bright lights of giant electric billboards, garish neon signs and enormous flashing video screens, feels about as far away from the traditional northern England rugby league heartlands as its possible to get.

Saturday’s game day began with an English Super League match in which the Wigan Warriors routed the Warrington Wolves, 48-24. Bringing the Brits into the fray was a brilliant move, because no fan base sings and parties harder than the Brits. They were heard all week up and down Vegas Strip and in every casino.

Rugby league is using an NFL playbook to give Americans another taste of the game this weekend. Australia's National Rugby League is taking its show to Las Vegas — for a second consecutive year — hoping it’ll leave a legacy for the game.

For those not familiar with rugby league and rugby union, it would be easy to confuse the pair as simply 'rugby'.