Rugby may not be a top-tier sport in the United States just yet but former All Black Andy Ellis is seeing first hand how the game is growing in the sports-mad nation.
Ellis joined Rugby United New York this season to compete in the Major League Rugby competition after spending his last few years in Japan with Kobelco.
The 37-year-old told Breakfast on Thursday morning he's loving his time in North America.
"It's incredible, it's been an amazing experience," he said.
"The rugby itself has been amazing and a really nice way for me to see out the later years of my career. We've flown to Vegas for games, Boston and Seattle and New Orleans - it's a great way to see this part of the world and help grow the game of rugby here which I can promise you, it is."
That isn't to say there's still plenty of growth yet to go; Ellis conceded crowd sizes this season have sat at around 8000 fans a game and matches currently are viewed on mobile apps rather than big broadcasting stations.
But Ellis is confident those numbers will increase, especially with promotions such as this weekend's clash between the All Blacks and US Eagles in Washington.
"I was down in DC to do a bit of promotion work down there and [I couldn't believe] the amount of people that came up to me and said they'd bought tickets and they were looking forward to the game," he said.
"People over here love sport and they love entertainment and new things; all these people over here are just looking forward to going down and watching the world famous All Blacks.
"They expect around 40,000 people at the game."
Sunday's match kicks off at 8:30am NZT.
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