Matty Johns: Two words NRL must ban to make it in America

The NRL’s historic season opener in Las Vegas was a huge success, but it must ban two words if it’s to really hit the big time in America.

The NRL must call itself the NRL in America.

The verdict is in. The NRL must not be referred to as rugby league if it is to truly achieve cut-through in America.

The NRL’s historic season opening double header in Las Vegas was a resounding success, with a crowd of more than 40,000 attending two high quality games at Allegiant Stadium.

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It was the first step of a five-year plan to kick off the season in Vegas and get a foothold in the United States’ sporting landscape and gambling market.

While locals who watched the game liked what they saw, there is still a long way to go in the battle of getting Americans to truly understand what rugby league is.

A major barrier standing in the way of the NRL making it big in the US is the fact many Americans think rugby league is the same as rugby union.

It’s long been a bugbear of Aussie NRL fans that Americans continue to refer to the 13-man code as “rugby”, instead of NRL or even just footy.

The confusion is understandable, given union is played in America’s Major League Rugby competition and the US have competed at eight Rugby Union World Cups.

The NRL’s Las Vegas foray was a raging success. Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images/AFP.

Matty Johns believes the NRL has a better chance of having lasting success in the States if it leans into calling itself the NRL and ditching the words rugby league when trying to expand the game overseas.

“The most important step is to differentiate us from rugby, so it’s really important we call it NRL,” Johns told the Daily Telegraph.

“It’s so easy when you’re over here to get lost in rugby with people not having the knowledge about how far we have evolved away from that.

“When you come to America and talk about rugby league, they call it rugby and say: ‘What about those All Blacks?’

“(Describing it) as NRL pushes us away from rugby.

“Remember back in the day we used to call American football Gridiron. Now it’s universally known as NFL.

“There are even times when you’re in England when they say you’re a rugby player. You have to tell them you play rugby league.”

The four major sporting codes in America are widely known by three-letter acronyms — the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL.

Matty Johns says the NRL should embrace its acronym. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

It’s rugby league, not rugby. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Johns’ argument echoed the sentiment of fellow Fox League personality Bryan Fletcher, who told news.com.au: “It’s the old problem of distinguishing between rugby and rugby league.

“I suppose the first year, I was hoping we would just advertise it as NRL.

“It’ll take time. And once they can compare the two, it’s two totally different sports.”

“There are Americans out there who know rugby league,” Fletcher said.

“But there are also the ones looking at the billboards and the crowds wondering, ‘Why are there so many Aussies here?’ then googling what rugby league is and they come back and go, ‘Geez it’s a fast game’.

“It’s going to take time. They’ve got their four sports that they all love. If we can get a little piece of that, it would be remarkable.”

The reaction when Americans call rugby league plain old rugby. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Manly Sea Eagles legend Steve Menzies agreed that using the NRL acronym was the best way to differentiate rugby league from rugby union.

“The NRL has the words rugby league in it and it’s a brand that can sit on its own,” Menzies told the Daily Telegraph.

“Not knowing our sport individually, it can be hard to differentiate between league and union and the difference between the two sports is quite big.

“They call it just rugby — they don’t know the difference and rugby is played in all the universities here in America. They know of rugby union.”

Round 1 of the NRL season continues on Thursday night when the Newcastle Knights play the Canberra Raiders.