RL in the USA? : Mon Sep 29, 2014 3:13 am  

Can anyone explain how it works over there? Is anything televised (even just recorded and available for viewing online- I know there are a few YouTube videos)?

There seems to be two different RL organisations (as of 2010): AMNRL and USARL. It looks like USARL is most up to date and active with most teams being in eastern USA. AMNRL seems to have a mostly broken website and hasn't updated their Twitter since June; they seem to have a lot of folded clubs and no active league, yet seem to be linked to the USA Tomahawks side that made an impact in the World Cup.

I am moving to the Seattle area within the next year and want to know what is my best bet for following a league over there and if there is anything at all going on in that area. I have noticed that there is a league in British Columbia, which might be the closest. Other than that there seems to be clubs under the AMNRL in Utah and California, but there is no info about them.

Thanks.

Re: RL in the USA? : Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:23 am  

Rugby League is split politically into the AMNRL and the break away USARL.

The AMNRL has not played any games since 2013 but used to control the national side the Tomahawks.

The USARL is split into a northern conference and southern conference. Has recently played its grand final which is available to watch on youtube.

It has 11 clubs spread along the eastern coast. It is currently planning its expansion for 2015.

Re: RL in the USA? : Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:18 am  

The reason for two organizations in the USA is pretty long and complicated. Basically, the AMNRL was the original governing body for the sport in the USA, founded and run by an Australian called David Niu and a group of his mates. They ran the sport for a while and did a decent job of getting things off the ground, but they were pretty disorganized and unprofessional in their approach and about 4-5 years ago the sport had grown to the stage where a more democratic and organized governing body was needed. Niu wouldn't budge though and wanted to carry on doing things his way, so most of the clubs broke away and formed a new organization, the USARL. For some reason Niu took this as a personal insult and set out to try and undermine the USARL at every opportunity, one of the ways he did this was by seizing control of the national team and only selecting players from the remaining few AMNRL clubs. By this stage the AMNRL competition was a joke, with only two strong clubs (both operated by personal friends of Niu) and a bunch of other filler sides that struggled to complete their fixtures, and meanwhile the USARL was a relatively strong, well-run competition that continued to grow each year, but because of politics none of their players were ever selected for the national team. It ended up with a pretty weird situation where the majority of the domestic game was controlled by the USARL but the national team was controlled by the AMNRL, and two were effectively rival organizations trying to work against each other. Niu actually left the sport in 2013 and the Tomahawks at the World Cup were run by another Australian called Steve Johnson under the AMNRL name, but that was really just a filler measure to get through the tournament and the whole thing pretty much disbanded after that. As for what's happening now, the AMNRL was handed over to new management at the start of 2014 with the goal of unifying what was left of their competition with the USARL, but this didn't happen for various reasons and the remaining AMNRL teams ended up sitting out the season. Meanwhile, USA's membership of the RL International Federation was suspended and the AMNRL were told that they didn't meet minimum standards to even apply, so with no league competition and no international recognition they really had no choice but to concede defeat to the USARL and fold. The USARL is currently in the process of applying for RLIF membership and this should be completed by the end of the year, enabling them to take over the national team and the overall running of the sport. It's worth noting that there was always an open invitation for all AMNRL teams to join the USARL competition and a few did jump ship last year, hopefully next year the remaining ex-AMNRL teams will join the USARL structure and the sport can move forward under one unified banner. In terms of Seattle, there was some talk of a team forming there a few years ago but it never materialized, probably due to a lack of suitable opponents. Here's the link to the old Seattle RL Facebook page in case you're interested, but it hasn't been updated for a year: https://www.facebook.com/SeattleRLFC

The reason for two organizations in the USA is pretty long and complicated. Basically, the AMNRL was the original governing body for the sport in the USA, founded and run by an Australian called David Niu and a group of his mates. They ran the sport for a while and did a decent job of getting things off the ground, but they were pretty disorganized and unprofessional in their approach and about 4-5 years ago the sport had grown to the stage where a more democratic and organized governing body was needed. Niu wouldn't budge though and wanted to carry on doing things his way, so most of the clubs broke away and formed a new organization, the USARL. For some reason Niu took this as a personal insult and set out to try and undermine the USARL at every opportunity, one of the ways he did this was by seizing control of the national team and only selecting players from the remaining few AMNRL clubs. By this stage the AMNRL competition was a joke, with only two strong clubs (both operated by personal friends of Niu) and a bunch of other filler sides that struggled to complete their fixtures, and meanwhile the USARL was a relatively strong, well-run competition that continued to grow each year, but because of politics none of their players were ever selected for the national team. It ended up with a pretty weird situation where the majority of the domestic game was controlled by the USARL but the national team was controlled by the AMNRL, and two were effectively rival organizations trying to work against each other. Niu actually left the sport in 2013 and the Tomahawks at the World Cup were run by another Australian called Steve Johnson under the AMNRL name, but that was really just a filler measure to get through the tournament and the whole thing pretty much disbanded after that. As for what's happening now, the AMNRL was handed over to new management at the start of 2014 with the goal of unifying what was left of their competition with the USARL, but this didn't happen for various reasons and the remaining AMNRL teams ended up sitting out the season. Meanwhile, USA's membership of the RL International Federation was suspended and the AMNRL were told that they didn't meet minimum standards to even apply, so with no league competition and no international recognition they really had no choice but to concede defeat to the USARL and fold. The USARL is currently in the process of applying for RLIF membership and this should be completed by the end of the year, enabling them to take over the national team and the overall running of the sport. It's worth noting that there was always an open invitation for all AMNRL teams to join the USARL competition and a few did jump ship last year, hopefully next year the remaining ex-AMNRL teams will join the USARL structure and the sport can move forward under one unified banner. In terms of Seattle, there was some talk of a team forming there a few years ago but it never materialized, probably due to a lack of suitable opponents. Here's the link to the old Seattle RL Facebook page in case you're interested, but it hasn't been updated for a year: https://www.facebook.com/SeattleRLFC