USARL 2025

[Gomersall]

 

[Eddie]

Great stuff, Miami to Tampa is over 4 hours drive, a long way for an amateur game. 

[Gomersall]

 

[fighting irish]

Thanks for posting this G. I'm always eager for news from the USA. Where's the best place (website) to stay abreast of developments states-side? 

[Gomersall]

1 hour ago, fighting irish said:

Thanks for posting this G. I'm always eager for news from the USA. Where's the best place (website) to stay abreast of developments states-side? 

[Whippet13]

The USARL appears to have disappeared into a black hole, their last press release was 6 weeks ago and seemed to says it's up to clubs to sort out their own local competitions - since then radio silence.

 USARL Announces Change to Club Registration Process for 2025 Season | USA Rugby League

Last I heard, the PCRL have withdrawn from USARL due to a lack of communication and consultation, plus accusations of attempting to undermine the PCRL. Not seen anything from Utah RL, but I think they are unhappy with both USARL and PCRL. Florida RL has 4 teams, Atlanta may be gone. Not seen anything from the North East. The RLIA podcast used to be pretty good and honest for info but has vanished.

All this is what I have picked up from Social Media and looks a right mess - sounds like politics yet again.    

If anyone has something more recent or different on the situation I would be very interested to see it.

[Gomersall]

 

[Wellsy4HullFC]

On 02/06/2025 at 13:32, Whippet13 said:

The USARL appears to have disappeared into a black hole, their last press release was 6 weeks ago and seemed to says it's up to clubs to sort out their own local competitions - since then radio silence.

 USARL Announces Change to Club Registration Process for 2025 Season | USA Rugby League

Last I heard, the PCRL have withdrawn from USARL due to a lack of communication and consultation, plus accusations of attempting to undermine the PCRL. Not seen anything from Utah RL, but I think they are unhappy with both USARL and PCRL. Florida RL has 4 teams, Atlanta may be gone. Not seen anything from the North East. The RLIA podcast used to be pretty good and honest for info but has vanished.

All this is what I have picked up from Social Media and looks a right mess - sounds like politics yet again.    

If anyone has something more recent or different on the situation I would be very interested to see it.

Is it because the USA is just so bloody big that they can't all get along? 

Do they need to just have state/regional associations and have those associations come together to organise a play off structure?

[gingerjon]

45 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Is it because the USA is just so bloody big that they can't all get along? 

Do they need to just have state/regional associations and have those associations come together to organise a play off structure?

It seems to be a particularly RL problem

[JonM]

1 hour ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Do they need to just have state/regional associations and have those associations come together to organise a play off structure?

That happened before, and then there was a load of argument/ teams being disqualified/ rules being changed restrospectively over how many Polynesians on short-term visas they had in the team.

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

 

[Eddie]

On 08/06/2025 at 08:26, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Is it because the USA is just so bloody big that they can't all get along? 

Do they need to just have state/regional associations and have those associations come together to organise a play off structure?

Would seem sensible, we have semi pro teams moaning about having to travel for more than two hours so an amateur comp covering the whole USA is clearly infeasible. 

[up the robins]

Cant they learn from our successful competion.

Don't they have a highway in one part of the country they can just focus on putting a team in every town it passes through,and block entries from elsewhere.

I

[Whippet13]

13 hours ago, Eddie said:

Would seem sensible, we have semi pro teams moaning about having to travel for more than two hours so an amateur comp covering the whole USA is clearly infeasible. 

They do not have a national competition, just regional amateur ones. Ony the playoff semis and the final are cross-regional.

Trouble is, they can't even manage stable regional competitions due to endless internal disputes, and the national governing body seems to have gone AWOL a couple of months ago.

[Eddie]

7 hours ago, Whippet13 said:

They do not have a national competition, just regional amateur ones. Ony the playoff semis and the final are cross-regional.

Trouble is, they can't even manage stable regional competitions due to endless internal disputes, and the national governing body seems to have gone AWOL a couple of months ago.

Even a regional competition like Florida’s covers far greater distances than our semi pro comps, it must be very difficult for them and kudos to them for somehow doing it. 

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

 

[PREPOSTEROUS]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLPEM0lsAw9/?igsh=eGw0eDQ3d2swMzAz

About 40 or so Americans seemed to enjoy themselves on Friday night.

[Gomersall]

 

[fighting irish]

1 hour ago, Gomersall said:

 

This'll never catch on. The action is glacial. Why T. F. are the stoppages so long? 

[Gomersall]

 

[american]

On 20/06/2025 at 01:45, Eddie said:

Even a regional competition like Florida’s covers far greater distances than our semi pro comps, it must be very difficult for them and kudos to them for somehow doing it. 

as an american (hence the username) we are no stranger to distances like that, which i think gives us more tolerance when some event/game/whatever makes us drive 3 4 5 hours. while having 5ish RL teams in the entire state of Florida is still lame, i don't think it's distance/travel costs that will hinder the sport here

[fighting irish]

1 hour ago, american said:

as an american (hence the username) we are no stranger to distances like that, which i think gives us more tolerance when some event/game/whatever makes us drive 3 4 5 hours. while having 5ish RL teams in the entire state of Florida is still lame, i don't think it's distance/travel costs that will hinder the sport here

what do you see as the major stumbling blocks to development there? 

[american]

4 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

what do you see as the major stumbling blocks to development there? 

mismanagement - albeit that is very much an umbrella term

• no one has any clue what the governing body does, it seems. we have multiple regional organizations that don't get along. we've cancelled two straight national championships over disputes I believe. it's pathetic and amateur.
• "rugby" in America almost exclusively means college students playing 15s. yes there are senior 15s clubs as well as junior development pathways, but for the overwhelming majority of americans they associate rugby with a random collegiate sport. of the 18-20 RL clubs in the united states, there are hardly any juniors programs at all. I don't believe there are any in the northeast where I am.

in my dream world, the 4 regional associations would get along to have a real national season (east vs west as a championship). they would be required to have a junior development pathway. they would secure some sort of media programming (even if it means free youtube streams like the florida teams do). they would update their website for the first time in years. they would market heavily towards offseason union players while also marketing league as its own sport to football/soccer players of all ages. 

it is very frustrating to watch because some of the most obvious changes are not even happening