As far as domestic leagues go, World Rugby and USA Rugby sanctioned "PRO Rugby" in 2016 but the venture folded after eight months. Major League Rugby cropped up in its place, a seven-team format that is banking on a private ownership model, rooted in existing rugby markets, to make this iteration, finally, a winner. "The owners and league office know that it's about creating and building markets from the grassroots up in their geographic region," USA Rugby boss Dan Payne says. "It will take time and a lot of hard work and that's something that everyone involved has a strong understanding of." Along with the Raptors and Austin Elite, MLR's launch season features teams from Houston, New Orleans, San Diego, Seattle and Salt Lake City. Next year a New York team will join and administrators hope that is just the beginning. "We're here, we're doing it but we're also quietly figuring it out as we go along," Rugby United New York owner James Kennedy says. Kennedy is an Irish expat who built up a construction company in his adopted home and has held fast to his rugby contacts back home. He had his head turned by the Pro 12 pitch last year but when that fell over, Kennedy bought into MLR with John Layfield, a former professional WWE wrestler turned Fox News analyst and, as it turns out, rugby tragic.

"The [Pro12] theory was good, increasing market base in America's quasi-European cities, but they were in a hurry, they wanted to build a team in six months," Kennedy says. "The biggest thing is making sure there's local talent and why we feel MLR is set for success in the way that the Pro12 wasn't is the growth of the grassroots game over the last few years." Using the example of Major League Soccer – competition boss Dean Howes was chief executive of MLS team Real Salt Lake – MLR has required each team take a stake in the parent entity at a reported cost of $650,000, hold player wages in escrow, make mandatory marketing spends and invest in juniors. There is a generous smattering of New Zealand, English and Irish accents across the league, but rules stipulate teams field no more than five foreign players at one time. The competition gave critics pause late last year when major US network CBS came on board as official television partner in a multi-year deal. With rival NBC broadcasting the Sevens World Series, Six Nations, UK Premiership and American collegiate sevens competition, the sport is making inroads. Test: 23,000 turned up to watch the Wallabies play the USA at Chicago's Soldier Field in 2015. Credit:Jonathan Daniel

Where that leaves the country's foreign suitors, such as Super Rugby, is unclear. The Wallabies and All Blacks have played Tests at Chicago's Soldier Field and are keen to keep up the close associations. But where administrators were hungrily eyeing off Super Rugby's expansion into North America two years ago, appetites have dropped away following the failure of the 18-team format. "Like every other major rugby competition in the world we are keeping a very close watch on how things develop there [with MLR]," SANZAAR boss Andy Marinos says. "There is obviously enormous underlying potential but as you've seen in the last three years it's gone through a fair amount of change and taken a while to get itself up and running. "The only way you can really assess the viaility of the market is seeing whether, in-country, they can get something off the ground." Marinos and his Pro 12 and Premiership counterparts in Europe will not be the only ones tracking MLR's progress. While history suggests this concept could go the way of its predecessors, there are some signs that rugby's time is coming in America.

Home grown star: USA men's sevens player Perry Baker was crowned world sevens player of the year in 2017. Credit:Daniel Munoz Luke Hume, a Sydney-raised former NSW Schoolboys representative in rugby league and union, has linked up with Kennedy at NY United after a career playing abroad. "Ten years ago the first time an American touched a rugby ball they were 18 or 19 and now they're 10 or 12," Hume says. "The college game is growing, too, so the quality of US athletes is skyrocketing." Hume's instincts seem to be borne out by results, at least in the shortened format of the game. The USA Sevens team won a world series leg in Las Vegas this year, propelled by home-grown super star Perry Baker. This year, Sevens World Cup organisers are on track to put 100,000 people through the turnstiles at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Payne stresses that the saturated but lucrative US market demands a home-grown product.