Baffling rules, shorter breaks in play and violence: impressions from the US of the NRL | Beau Dure

Selling the game in Vegas was worth a try but pyrotechnics, booming music and its commonality to other sports won't work in the long run

With a doubleheader of games on Saturday night in cavernous Allegiant Stadium, only a few weeks removed from its duties as the Super Bowl venue, the NRL made a hard sales pitch for a US audience.

I promise - I promise you are going to enjoy what we affectionately call the greatest game of all," intoned Australian commentator Dan Ginnane at the opening of Fox Sports' American broadcast of an Australian game being played on an American field in the otherworldly city of Las Vegas.