American National Rugby League
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| American National Rugby League | |
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| Current season or competition: 2007 AMNRL season |
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| Sport | Rugby League |
| Founded | 1998 |
| No. of teams | 10 |
| Country(ies) |  United States |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Connecticut Wildcats |
The American National Rugby League (sometimes referred to as the AMNRL) is the major rugby league tournament for semi-professional[citation needed] clubs in the United States. Currently there are ten teams in the league predominantly based on the north-east coast. They compete annually in the AMNRL competition.
The league was established in 1998 to create a top tier rugby league competition in North America. The first season saw only four teams based in the north-eastern states compete. However since then, with continued expansion the league has grown at various stages with teams now going down the east coast of the United States.[citation needed] The 2006 season saw the addition of the Jacksonville Axemen, New Haven Warriors and the Boston Braves. The most recent expansion in 2007 has seen the Fairfax Eagles join.
With the establishment of the AMNRL the United States national rugby league team (with the exception of a limited amount of foreign-based players) has now largely consists of players whom currently play in the domestic competition.
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[edit] Teams
[edit] Latest News
- The Philadelphia Fight and Delaware Valley Mantarays decided to merge in an attempt to form a stronger entity in Philadelphia; the new club will still be known as the Philadelphia Fight[1].
- The Glen Mills Bulls relocated and in the process changed their name to the Aston Delco Sports Club Bulls of the Aston DSC Bulls[2] .
- The Boston Braves after competing in 2006 were not re-admitted to the AMNRL for the 2007 season while one new team joined the league for 2007 the Fairfax Eagles.
- The American National Rugby League has decided to alter its format used in previous competitions opting to now use a singular league format in comparison to the two conference format[3].
[edit] History
[edit] Origins
The first signs of domestic rugby league within the United States came about during 1939 when the Californian Rugby Football Union wrote a letter to the Rugby Football League based in England requesting a move away from Rugby union and instead decided to affiliate itself with League. In late-1939, the Rugby Football League began making plans to send a delegate to California to finalise the plans but with the outbreak of the Second World War were unable to do so.
Rugby league then lay somewhat dormant in the decades after the war and although a hastily put together international side toured both Australia, New Zealand and France in the early 1950s this did not change anything at all back in the United States.
Things slowly began to change in North America during the late-1970s and early-1980s when several small amateur domestic competitions began to appear around both the United States and Canada. Originally these competitions were largely made up of ex-pats from the United Kingdom and Oceania but slowly domestic players began to appear both from other sports and rugby union.
[edit] Establishment
| Season | Winner | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Connecticut Wildcats | |||
| 2006 | Connecticut Wildcats | |||
| 2005 | Glen Mills Bulls | |||
| 2004 | Glen Mills Bulls | |||
| 2003 | Connecticut Wildcats | |||
| 2002 | New York Knights | |||
| 2001 | Glen Mills Bulls | |||
| 2000 | Glen Mills Bulls | |||
| 1999 | Glen Mills Bulls | |||
| 1998 | Glen Mills Bulls | |||
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The league was originally established for the 1998 inaugural season by several individuals in the north-eastern states whom wanted to join together the amateur rugby league competitions that existed as park leagues in the United States.
Since it's formation where only four clubs existed and competed in the American National Rugby League, participation has steadily grown and this has allowed for continual expansion seen between 2000 and 2003 where another four teams were added to the AMNRL. At the beginning of the 2006 season another three teams were added to the league being the Boston Braves, New Haven Warriors and the Jacksonville Axemen. The Braves only played one season and did not return in 2007, replaced by the Fairfax Eagles.
[edit] Expansion
Although the 'heartland' of rugby league is the north east coast, the AMNRL is quickly expanding to other areas of the eastern coast, as well as this, efforts are being made to set up a west coast competition or to further introduce west coast teams.
In 2006, a new team joined the AMNRL from Boston, which played an exhibition match in 2005. Teams from New Haven, Connecticut and Jacksonville, Florida also joined the 2006 competition. A Chicago-based team is also going through various stages to be included in the AMNRL in the future.
A Florida league is currently going through various stages of development and will be seeking to enter a representative team from that league into the AMNRL in the near future. Florida has hosted rugby league games in the past, the state was the host to 1999 North Pacific Qualification Tournament, where the USA beat both Japan and Canada to meet Lebanon for the right to play in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. In 2001, Florida was also host to the Sunshine State Challenge, where the United States competed against the Huddersfield Giants, Halifax and the Leeds Rhinos; the miniature tournament drew a crowd of 6,700.
In 2005, an exhibition match was played in the western United States, in Phoenix, Arizona, to help promote rugby league outside the heartland and there has been talk of further expanding the conferences to the west to include teams or representative teams from the West Coast Rugby League[1].
[edit] Commissioners and presidents
- David Niu (1998 - 2007)
[edit] Statistics and awards
[edit] League records
Largest victory Jacksonville Axemen 90 - 8 Philadelphia Fight (2006)
[edit] Most Valuable Player
At the conclusion of each season the title of Most Valuable Player is awarded to the individual whom accumalates the most points via a voting system that is undertaken after every game. Each official at the conclusion of a regular season fixture awards either three, two and one points for the most deserving players on game day; these points are then added up to determine the MVP. Performance is not only measured by individual feats but also the influence that player has had on the performance of their respective team.
| Year | Player | Club |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Jason Gargaram | Glen Mills Bulls |
| 2005 | Andrew Webster / Erik Hollingsworth | Connecticut Wildcats / Glen Mills Bulls |
| 2004 | Marcus Vassilakopoulos | Glen Mills Bulls |
| 2003 | Danny Bull | Connecticut Wildcats |
| 2002 | Shayne Mains | Glen Mills Bulls |
| 2001 | Dave DiValerio | Delaware Valley Mantarays |
| 2000 | Ed Woodbridge | Glen Mills Bulls |
| 1999 | Shayne Mains | Glen Mills Bulls |
| 1998 | Bill Hansbury | Glen Mills Bulls |
Every season to date has seen an individual awarded the MVP excluding the 2005 season where both Andrew Webster and Erik Hollingsworth were awarded the Most Valuable player after they finished on equal points.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] External links
- Official websites
- News sites
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