This pains me to say this but no one is deluded to think rugby league is a minority sport in this city - it certainly is not. Pop into my local on a Friday night when Super League is showing and you will see it is extremely popular - certainly more so than a game in the NPC for example.
...and yet the pubs I generally use don't show it at all and especially not in preference to football, so perhaps your local has most of the TV watchers?
Really, this 'rugby mad' thing is pure media myth perpetuated because the local media spoon feed it out. I truly can't understand why they (mainly FC) need to try to compete with football. If they were realistic, there's far more benefit to be had in working together than there is in competing.