While baseball is perhaps geographically as limited as rugby in terms of interest (to be precise for Rebekah's sake), the methodical and relentless projection of American culture to the rest of the world has created a situation where I would think it more likely that a foreigner has heard of the New York Yankees than that someone in the US, Russia, China, or a whole host of other countries has heard of the All Blacks.

As for "The King and I", perhaps it is getting dated, but it is a major classic movie that people have watched the world over. I wouldn't call Yul Brynner a "Russian actor", though. He never starred in a Russian movie in his entire life and was just barely born in Russia since his family was fleeing the Bolsheviks. He was the King in "The King and I", Rameses in "The Ten Commandments" and starred in plenty of Westerns, including "The Magnificent Seven".