Rugby league returned to Las Vegas on Sunday in its continuing mission to convert Americans to football without pads, drawing 50,000 fans to Allegiant stadium where the grit of the quintessential Australian sport mixed with the glamor of the entertainment capital.

On Saturday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the National Rugby League from Australia and New Zealand will deliver its Act 2 to the U.S.

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.

No one has mastered the art of putting on a big show better than Las Vegas. And, for the second consecutive year opening its season in Sin City, the National Rugby League was up to the task, delivering a week-long show of its own,

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