The American National Rugby League (AMNRL) is a rugby league football competition for semi-professional clubs in the United States. It is the country's first domestic rugby league competition. The AMNRL is recognized as the governing body for the sport in the United States by the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF), and oversees the United States national rugby league team.

The competition that became the AMNRL was established in 1997, with six teams competing in the first season the following year. It grew to eleven by 2010, with plans for westward expansion. On 12 January 2011, seven teams announced they were departing the AMNRL to form the new USA Rugby League.

The competition that became the modern American National Rugby League was founded in 1997, when Super League America was formed to organize a national team, establish an amateur domestic competition, and build the sport in the United States. The organization was initially established by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in an attempt to spread rugby league to the United States. The organization was run by former professional player David Niu, who had come to Philadelphia in 1992 and had been active in promoting the sport there. Super League America's domestic competition began its inaugural season in 1998, and was contested by six teams all in the Northeastern United States: the Glen Mills Bulls (now the Aston Bulls), the New Jersey Sharks (now the Bucks County Sharks), the New York Broncos (now the New York Knights), the Philadelphia Bulldogs (now the Philadelphia Fight), the Boston Storm, and the Pennsylvania Raiders. The Boston and Pennsylvania teams soon dropped out; the others formed the core of the modern AMNRL. Super League America organized the domestic competition in 1998 and 1999; the Glen Mills Bulls were declared league champions in both years.

The Shore is an American rock group founded in Silver Lake, CA by frontman Ben Ashley. The Shore are heavily influenced by psychedelic bands like The Byrds, The Beatles, Coldplay, and The Beach Boys as well as Britpop groups Oasis and The Verve.

In the spring of 2002, Ashley wrote a series of songs with producer Rick Parker. Parker assembled a group of local musicians, including Kyle Mullarky (bass), Cliff Magreta (guitar), and John Wilmer (drums), to record a series of demos. The demos came to Scott Austin, a Maverick A&R Executive, and the band was given a major contract only a few months after their initial recordings. The Shore returned to the studio with Parker to record their first album. The Shore recorded the album over a period of three months. The Shore EP was released on New Year's Day of 2003. Their full length album, The Shore, was released in August 2004. After guitarist Wayne Faler toured with the band, he was added as a permanent member in December 2005. It was about this time that The Shore parted ways with Maverick Records to pursue a better record deal.

David Niumataiwalu, better known as David Niu (born January 3, 1966), is an Australian-American rugby league and rugby union administrator, coach, and former player. Regarded as one of the founders of rugby league in the United States, he is currently president of the American National Rugby League (AMNRL), the country's oldest rugby league competition and the national governing body for the sport.

Niu played for the St. George Rugby Union team from 1984 to 1989 before shifting to the rugby league code. His professional league career included two seasons with the St. George Dragons in Australia's New South Wales Rugby League (now the National Rugby League) from 1990 to 1991; his position was Scrum-half/Halfback. In 1993 he relocated to the United States where he was involved in promoting both codes. He was one of the founders of the United States national rugby league team, and played on the USA Eagles national rugby union team, appearing in the 1999 Rugby World Cup. In 1997 he founded the competition that became the modern AMNRL.