Two Aussies, two Brits and one American walk into a bar on Westheimer.

“Today’s a cheat day, right?” one of the Aussies says.

Endorsing the local way of life, the American replies, “Every day’s a cheat day.”

They are brawny rugby men of the Houston SaberCats, and when they saw the wellspring of draft beers and fatty treasures, they weighed the consequences of carb-overloading 72 hours before kicking off the franchise’s second season Saturday against Austin Elite in Round Rock.

The SaberCats are getting accustomed to Houston.

Their first season required muscling through some growing pains — they did not assign staff for merchandise and the scoreboard miscalculated the final score at the inaugural game — and intestinal discomfort — an overzealous foreign player got himself sick at an eggnog-chugging competition — but the March 23 opening of the 3,500-seat Aveva Stadium, near Highway 288 and Airport Boulevard., signifies unprecedented permanence for rugby here.

The question of whether it can be mainstream in America looms like a ceiling Major League Rugby has been determined to break through since its start last year. The league secured substantial investments from owners, expanded to nine teams and agreed with TV networks to broadcast every game.

More Information Schedule Jan. 26, at Austin, 7 p.m. Feb. 9, at San Diego, 9 p.m. Feb. 22, vs. Toronto, 7 p.m. March 2, vs. New York, 7 p.m. March 10, at Seattle, 7 p.m. March 16, vs. New Orleans, 7 p.m. March 23, vs. Utah, 7 p.m. April 6, at Glendale, 7 p.m. April 13, vs. Seattle, 5:30 p.m. April 21, at Toronto, 1 p.m. April 28, vs. San Diego, 6 p.m. May 5, at New York, 4 p.m. May 11, vs. Glendale, 7 p.m. May 18, at New Orleans, 2 p.m. May 25, vs. Austin, 6 p.m. June 1, at Utah, 7 p.m. Note: First two home games will be at Constellation Field in Sugar Land. Remainder of home games at Aveva Stadium.

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“If you can sell soccer in America, you can sell rugby,” coach Justin Fitzpatrick said, while his Korean fried chicken sandwich got cold.

Being on the SaberCats is less about being an ambassador for the international tradition than a tireless pitchman of a new life essential.

“In an average rugby game, over 80 minutes there’s 46 minutes of whistle-to-whistle action,” Fitzpatrick said. “In an NFL game, there’s 11 minutes of whistle-to-whistle action — when the ball’s in play.”

“Everybody in world rugby is looking over to America, and hoping and praying that it takes off,” assistant coach Neil Kelly said. “It’s the biggest sports market.”

“The sleeping giant,” chimed in Matt Trouville, a player who overcame his gastronomical apprehension to devour a double cheeseburger.

Coach Paul Emerick, an Iowa native, encouraged Trouville’s indulgence. Emerick left a sales job in Colorado to join the SaberCats this season. He suggested the inclusive nature of rugby makes the team ideal for tryouts that fall short of making other sports professionally.

Trouville guides the grass roots efforts as a coach at the developmental academy. He has conducted local training programs for ages 14 to 19. He persuaded several HISD athletic directors to let the SaberCats introduce rugby in physical education classes and is targeting Katy ISD next. He envisions busing students from low-income neighborhoods to the team’s new 42-acre facility in Houston Sports Park, outfitted with two full-size fields, for an all-inclusive day of rugby.

“The only way for our game to grow, is to get more kids playing,” Trouville said.

The players and Fitzpatrick, a former Ireland prop (a player who helps form the front row of a scrum) and assistant coach on the U.S. national team, endorse rugby like a political pledge.

“We’re going to have the No. 1 pro rugby stadium in the country,” Fitzpatrick said.

Before Aveva Stadium opens, the SaberCats will host three home games at Constellation Field, but they previously played some games at Dyer Stadium, a high school football venue that prohibits the sale of alcohol, which dulled the rugby buzz.

“We’re marrying up wanting to be competitive now with the longer-term goal of providing the city of Houston with a stadium they can be proud of,” Fitzpatrick said. “Helping local community high school, college, club level grow, supporting that through the academy, and making sure there’s a better standing of rugby that can feed up to the pros.”

The grand vision is materializing largely because of a $3.2 million deal the Houston City Council approved and principal owner Miguel Loya, the type of free-spending oil and gas magnate the sport needs. He began playing rugby at the University of Texas at El Paso. His latest investment is fun for him. He expected to lose money in the beginning. Only after the game-day snafus and a sleepless night in London did he realize how to treat the SaberCats like a proper business in Year Two.

“Maybe we need a bullet in the head for being so stupid, but you only live once,” he said. “We had apparel and we had a team, but we didn’t know what to do.”

Loya and other investors were too eager. The SaberCats were ready to play by November 2017, but the league revised the regular season to eight games that would start the following spring. The SaberCats wound up playing a 16-game preseason. The workload would not be a lot for rugby veterans, but the 24 games depleted less-experienced Americans on the roster.

The SaberCats finished the regular season 1-7.

Players suggested the preseason was valuable for drumming up interest. The first exhibition at Constellation Field drew a crowd of more than 5,000 fans, breaking the record for a domestic U.S. rugby match. Average attendance settled closer 2,500, according to Loya, in part because there were few night games.

Sam Windsor, an Australian fly-half, attended the Texans’ playoff game against the Colts on Jan. 5. He imagined what it must have felt like to be one of the football players. He envied the fanfare they generated.

Fitzpatrick sold his team on the legacy of becoming rugby forefathers in America. The players have bought in.

They have relished the highs and lows of being foreigners in Houston. Trouville said the pack of strapping men with enchanting accents has been treated to “a lot of free coffees, free drinks.”

The maximum salary in MLR is $35,000, but only around 23 of 35 men on roster are salaried. The minimum wage is $15 per hour. Fitzpatrick said six or seven of his players hold down day jobs.

“We don’t live the millionaire lifestyle,” Trouville said. “We do this for the love of the game and what it has done for us.”

Unlike in America’s major sports, rugby pros, famous or not, traditionally invite fans to join them for postgame at the pub. After cheering the SaberCats, fans vented directly in their faces.

“People come up and tell us what we did wrong all the time,” Trouville said.

“We call them potholes,” Windsor said.

“Can’t step in a pothole because you don’t come out,” Trouville said. “But everyone deserves three minutes.”

The SaberCats hosted Pride Night last season, celebrating the LGBTQ community in a way Houston’s three major teams have not.

“That goes back to the cultural thing,” Emerick said. “Rugby’s a very inclusive sport.”

Although prop Codi Jones did not identify as LGBTQ, as Windsor put it, “He was sort of a bear,” the kind of mustachioed burly athlete that was happy to discover he had attracted a new fan base.

Charlie Connolly, a 5-11, 265-pound prop from Dublin, never had tried eggnog before engulfing half a gallon of it at a radio station competition. Teammates could not find him after, until they noticed a deep queue outside the port-a-potty.

“He’d spent the last five minutes throwing up in there,” Trouville said.

“He joined the line again to go back in,” Windsor added.

The SaberCats enjoyed touching moments, too. They highlighted members of the community at games by having them join hands with players during the national anthem. Trouville recalled a boy named Austin. He later met Austin’s parents and thanked them for coming.

A few weeks later, Trouville ran into the family at a grocery store. Austin was wearing a SaberCats T-shirt.

“Hopefully he’s a fan for life of not only the SaberCats, but the game,” Trouville said. “That’s something I’ll remember for years.”

hunter.atkins@chron.com

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