Rugby league’s greatest ride returns to Las Vegas this weekend with Super League nestled firmly in the sidecar. Two NRL fixtures kick off the Australian season while Hull KR and Leeds Rhinos open up the Allegiant Stadium action on Saturday. More than 12,000 English fans are expected to make the trip and add plenty of colour, flair and, most importantly, value.

This has been a strong start to 2026 for the game in England, evidenced last week by Hull KR’s triumph over Brisbane Broncos in the World Club Challenge. It is handy for Super League that the Robins are one of two clubs in Vegas representing the competition this week and they have even flown the trophy over to hammer home the point that Super League holds the cards when it comes to the best club side in the game.

But the mere presence of Super League standing side-by-side with its Australian counterparts this weekend should emphasise why greater cohesion between the sport’s two premier competitions can have immeasurable benefits for the game in the northern hemisphere. While Super League sweats over the outcome of a new TV deal that could dictate the medium- and long-term financial future of the competition, the NRL are accelerating their plans for global domination.

Las Vegas is just the start. They will ink their own record broadcast deal later this year, having just revealed record-breaking revenue numbers. Talk of a global round for the NRL as early as next year is now brewing with London earmarked as a central part of the plans – which could bring the future of London Broncos into clearer view on this side of the world, too, with expectations strong they will be a Super League club in 2027.

The NRL’s commander in chief, Peter V’landys, will sit down for talks with English officials this week with a view to ironing out a deal that will see potential investment from the Australian game into Super League, bringing the two competitions together like never before. While the bright lights of Las Vegas and the glamour surrounding the fixtures at Allegiant Stadium catch the eye, this is perhaps the real story of note if you scratch beneath the surface.

“I think the NRL have been very receptive towards us and we are expecting to receive something from them in terms of a closer working relationship,” Rhodri Jones, the CEO of RL Commercial, explains. “They see the value in Super League. For the last fortnight we’ve been on the global stage; with Hull KR winning the World Club Challenge and putting eyeballs on the game in Australia, and now we’re in Vegas off the back of a successful start.”

There is immense value in Super League, underlined by the footprint the competition has on the Vegas event. At the now-traditional team unveiling on Fremont Street on Thursday, the noise of Hull KR and Leeds supporters drowned out their Australian counterparts and left NRL officials impressed. “It has once again justified why Super League belongs at this event,” Jones says.

Super League is trying to emulate the NRL by pushing into an events culture, too. This summer, Wigan and Catalans will take a game to Paris. Next year, the Warriors and Warrington will go to Dublin. Gone are the days of trying to preach to the converted it seems; and if the NRL get fully on board, that mood will only grow further.

“It’s globalisation of sport,” Jones says. “That’s ultimately what the headline is and coming here means rugby league is being globalised; that’s what every serious sport is doing. The NFL do it in Europe, don’t they? It captures interest at home too; last year, the Vegas game was the most-watched Super League game on Sky Sports. Bigger than the Grand Final. That’s unheard of.”

The mood is shifting on the ground too. Hull KR have had to forfeit a home game to make this clash with Leeds happen in Vegas, meaning they will turn a loss on the trip. Leeds also say they expect to lose money given the costs involved with travelling but with the lure of what the NRL can offer now within tantalising reach, clubs like these are seeing the bigger picture.

“Too much of a deal is being made of this – it’s fine,” their CEO, Paul Lakin, says. “It’s not a big loss to us. It’s a small loss, but we budgeted to make a small loss. We’ve got top players, and the top players want to play in the biggest games and in the best stadiums in the world. We have to create that platform. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Super League needs the NRL, that much is obvious on so many levels. But in Sin City, perhaps the NRL needs Super League just as much based on what we’ve seen once again this week in terms of the support from English fans and the colour they have added to this carnival of rugby league.

The challenge now is to convert this hype into real change on the ground back home: and after months of posturing, that is where V’landys and the NRL perhaps finally enter the picture.