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Amnrl clubs to new format

winnyason

Juniors
Messages
1,576
From reading Facebook sites it seems ct wildcats, and Chicago conference clubs and Southampton will be joining the usarl. Which would take total clubs to around 16.
To me it seems penny bulls, buck county sharks and knights seem to not be involved I might be wrong. It would be good for code if original clubs such as knights and bulls stayed involved in code.
Spinner may be able to give more info on Utah and California ?
 

winnyason

Juniors
Messages
1,576
Do you want to talk about your pathetic test team again or are you the grammar police?
Remember best chance in 40 years still did not make final ......
 
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IowaRL

Juniors
Messages
419
They joined the Midwest development conference. We will play each other, and are hoping for a 6 game season.
 

IowaRL

Juniors
Messages
419
Hopin for 13's, but nines otherwise. Should hold the College series again, plus maybe a high school program if the interest is there.
 

hutch

First Grade
Messages
6,810
What effect will this have on rugby league in the USA? Can't see it being a good one. Gee I wish it was rugby league they were talking about, it would be a much more pleasurable experience for Americans (and anybody else new to the rugby codes).


http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/01/nrfl-rugby-usa

Ex-NFL players are putting their dreams into rugby, and a league that doesn't yet exist

But can it be the next great American sport?

By: NINA MANDELL 14 hours ago

9.1k shares
ADVERTISEMENT - SCROLL FOR STORY


Daniel Wilczek- NRFL Films
When his phone stopped ringing after seven seasons in the NFL, Aaron Francisco wasn’t quite ready to call it quits.

Then another ex-player, Deuce Lutui, reached out to him with an invitation to test a different sport — rugby. Though he’d never played the game, Lutui convinced Francisco to fly to Minnesota at his own expense and try out at the National Rugby Football League combine for a spot in a planned national league and a chance to play against international competition at the Independence Cup.

Francisco, a defensive back who played for the Arizona Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts from 2005-10, was intrigued by what Lutui, the league’s director of player development, was pitching. Francisco could be part of a team again. He could show that he still has what it takes to be a professional athlete. And he could get in on the ground floor of a league playing a sport that is wildly popular around the world.

“I didn’t really know what to think about but told him, ‘Yeah, if they pull through I’d love to be part of it.’” Francisco says. “I didn’t want to be one of those guys who had a shot at something and didn’t take it and it becomes huge and I felt like I missed out.”

Another combine was held last week at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and like the event in Minnesota, it drew more than 150 participants, according to Michael Clements, one of the NRFL’s co-founders. Many of them are like Francisco, former football players who are enthused by the chance at a second life in a new sport.

Their ambition may be surpassed only by Clements, who says he is forming a team to play an exhibition against the Leicester Tigers, English power, in August, and plans to launch the 16-team league by 2016. “The world is looking at the U.S. to say ‘Hey, come play this game’ and that’s what we’re doing,“ says Clements. “We’re the ones that are bringing it here.”

Except many of those who have tried out for the league are feeling anxious after two canceled exhibition games and broken promises — not to mention an understanding of the amount of capital it takes launch a venture of this size.

“After the combine was over, I think they were supposed to contact us within 30 days after and I hadn’t heard from them in two months,” says Francisco, who was told he had made a team that would play against Leicester. “Then (NRFL director of player recruitment Shawn Zobel) called me one day and said everything was good and they’re getting things started up again and I got really excited about it. I joined a league out here just to learn the game and learn as much as I can.”

Zach Gentry, who played football at North Carolina State and went to camp with the New York Jets, participated in a combine last year with his brother, Taylor. They were told they made the exhibition team and to be prepared to travel overseas where where they would represent the league, leaving behind theirs jobs in the U.S. in the process.

“I got a call from one of the head guys and he was like, ‘Just notifying you that you may be flying out in the next couple of weeks,'” Zach Gentry says. “I was completely ready and ready to roll and my family and friends expected I was going overseas, but I never got that call. But we were told by (Zobel) that the NRFL is going to happen this year so hopefully it does.”

George Robertson, another co-founder of the NRFL, says they are now being more measured in starting up the league, trying to make sure they have the right players, corporate structure, partners and venues.

“If we have any fault,” Robertson says, “I don’t know if we realized how ambitious we
were when we went down this road.”

READY FOR RUGBY?

Even if the NRFL is launched, is the U.S. ready to sustain a national rugby league?

The sport figures to gain valuable exposure next year when it is an Olympic event for the first time. According to USA Rugby, the main governing body in the U.S., 5 million kids have participated in youth rugby over the past five years, and there are 104,637 people registered with the organization. And another rugby league, the Grand Prix Rugby Football League, announced its debut in 2013, though it has yet to debut.

(USA Rugby, however, says it has no relationship with the NRFL and declined to comment on the league’s prospects.)


Daniel Wilczek- NRFL Films
Clements says he sees potential for huge growth in the U.S., and has chosen to build a national league here instead of buying into a team in England.

“Why is it that this great sport of rugby that has been around since 1823 is not being played here?” Clements says. “So I went to work, started working with people, grabbed some folks that were very knowledgeable in major league sports, former NFL execs and so forth.”

Clements spent most of his life building APS International, which he describes as Home Depot for lawyers. In 2013, according to business records, he and Robertson, formed RugbyLaw with an eye on building the first professional rugby league in the U.S.

“This is serious business,” Clements says. “This is a major league economy. And the major league economy is exactly the business model that we’re following. So make no mistake about it — this a multi-billion dollar deal that’s being birthed right now.”

Clements declined to name potential investors or executives from other sports with whom he has spoken. Robertson says he believes they need about $200 million to start the league.

“The people that are looking at this are owners of major league sports right now,” Clements says. “And internationally, we have international multi-billion dollar entities that are looking in on this right now. And we also have Hollywood high-level entertainment figures.”

Joe Furin, general manager of the Los Angeles Coliseum, said that he told Clements he would introduce them to a number of television and entertainment executives while they were in town for the combine.

“I think from an industry perspective we’ve seen things come and go, we’ve seen ventures, whether it’s the XFL football league or something like that, so it does take a lot of dynamics to establish a new league and get it going,” Furin says.

“We’ve seen hits and we’ve seen misses —you never know what’s going to take hold and grow. Look at something like the X Games. … (When it started) people were wondering if it’s going to happen

“Now it’s a staple.”

Before the league is launched, Clements and Robertson plan to put on an exhibition game against Leicester, though neither side could confirm a venue when asked by USA TODAY Sports. Zobel says it will be announced in two weeks.

Another exhibition between a team called the American Barbarians and the London Irish, which was also backed by RugbyLaw and England’s Premier Rugby Limited of which Leicester is also a part of, collapsed in 2013 after it was scheduled at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. In 2014, another attempt at the exhibition, which is labeled the “Independence Cup,” was postponed a year.

“We have a concrete timeline right now,” Zobel says. “When we held our first combine we were in talks and in the process of putting together the Independence Cup with the Leicester Tigers, so it was premature at that combine or once we had told those players that they would receive the invitation a specific date.

“With the fact that this game is set in place for August 1, we have specific dates that are set in stone — not necessarily in stone — but a timeline of how things are going to play out in the next nine months.”

‘WHAT MAKES YOU SURE?’

For longtime rugby players, having a professional league in the U.S. would be a dream come true.

Derrek Van Klein, a two-time Division II All-American player at the University of Minnesota Duluth who has been playing rugby for six years, learned about the combine online and then was contacted by Zobel. “I thought it’d be great if we could a professional league in the U.S.,” Van Klein says. “That would be a dream for a lot of rugby (players).”

Van Klein says he took on the role as the veteran player at the combine in Minnesota last year even though he was younger than most of the participants. He says he was invited to tryout at another combine this year.


Daniel Wilczek- NRFL Films
“I was 22 when I tried out and I felt like most of the players there were in their late 20s,” he says. “So I felt young and undersized — guys that have just been training in the football combines ever since they got out of college — and it was just a big step up from the college level to seeing these guys. The way I looked at it I’d give it a shot and if I wound up being selected for it I’d put school on hold and go play professional rugby if I could.”

The NRFL’s Facebook page is also overwhelmed with requests for information and enthusiasm that one day it will become a reality. Despite what seems to be a limited amount of communication from the league, all of the players who spoke to USA TODAY Sports said they were convinced the league would happen as well. But what makes Clements so sure at least the exhibition game will happen this year?
 

miguel de cervantes

First Grade
Messages
7,468
Personally I think "play this sport because everyone else in the world does" has very little sway in the US compared to other countries or regions.

I'm more or less convinced rugby union is too complicated and nuanced to flog to mainstream America. About as much chance as selling cricket to them. The majority would just not have the patience to sit down and understand the thing.

They may be able to create a trendy niche following but the whole exercise could be a real money pit.
 

Bronco Rob

Juniors
Messages
922
We can only hope that the NRFL tears the game apart as it is not aligned at all with the governing body, the USA Rugby. Amusing to see that Grand Prix got a mention in the article, are they still around?
 

PacificCoastRL

Juniors
Messages
316
Worry that when the NRFL falls flat on its face, that it will set rugby league back as well. As many have stated - most Americans don't know the difference between union and league, so league will be lumped in with union as having failed in North America. On the other hand - if the NRFL fails, rugby league proponents, if they play their cards right, could say, "hey, looky here our game is better than the crap that you just went through.
 

deal.with.it

Juniors
Messages
2,086
If RL just consolidates their position in key hotbeds (ie Jacksonville/Florida, Rhode Island, Philly) there's no reason why there can't be a very strong and stable amateur RL pyramid for years to come.
There's no failure in having a very strong amateur Eastern competition and several minor leagues, with many players gaining contracts in UK, France, NZ and Aus.
There doesn't have to be a pro comp to have a strong US national team.
 

joshreading

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
1,720
What this does show is that american athletes are willing to come out to try out for high level professional competitions.

The NRL / Super League should really be holding combines in the USA.

Such could quite easily be done sending a small team working together with the USARL holding camps in two or three strategic locations.

It would rapidly rise the profile of RL in the Rugby community in the USA.
It would elevate the profile of the NRL / Super League competitions themselves
We may well find a gem or two in the rough.

If players that try out for combines (that miss out) are encouraged to join local USARL teams for the purpose of increasing their skills we also build the local comps.
 

Rodney

Juniors
Messages
243
The athletes are willing but we're yet to see how well these athletes can transition.
There has been the odd crossover player to either code but theoretically the crossover is a massive divide.
American football is a Stop-start, reaction based, highly specialized sport. None of those attributes really cross over at all.
Players struggle to bridge the divide between the two Rugbys, getting multiple players to successfully cross over between AF and Rugby seems pretty unlikely.

when you hold a combine you expect to be sifting through talent and when you fully expect the combine to be filled with players who are nowhere near making the grade I think were making a big mistake.

imo a solid coup for the comp would be for teams to partner with NRL, SL ect teams and then have a second string player or a player just coming back from an injury play a couple matches for a USARL team.
 

gyallop

Juniors
Messages
551
imo a solid coup for the comp would be for teams to partner with NRL, SL ect teams and then have a second string player or a player just coming back from an injury play a couple matches for a USARL team.

It would be coup but will never happen far too expensive and you cant just loan a player under Australian rules.
Anyway even if the rules were changed why would they drop an elite player coming back from injury back to such a level of footy where he wouldnt be tested and it would achieve nothing. If an elite player isnt ready to come back into the NRL he isnt ready to come back. If it was a fringe player they wanted to get match fit that just wouldnt happen at USA level.
 

hutch

First Grade
Messages
6,810
I actually think the best thing for the computer would be retired nrl or super league players playing either guest stints or captain/coaching, similar to the A-league with older soccer players. Was it Daniel wagon that played a season and won amnrl comp?
 

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