2018 USARL National Champions!

No Pads, No Helmets, only HUGE Hits! The Jacksonville Axemen Rugby League team has been bringing hard hits to Jacksonville FL since 2006. The team was founded by Head Coach Daryl “Spinner” Howland and General Manager Drew Slover as an expansion team of the American National Rugby League (AMNRL). Since their beginning they have developed into one of the most successful rugby league football clubs in the United States both on and off the field. They advanced to the AMNRL playoffs in 2006, 2008, and 2009, and won the 2010 AMNRL Championship. The following year they became one of seven teams to depart the AMNRL to form the new USARL (USA Rugby League), which began in the summer of 2011.  The Jacksonville Axemen won the USARL Championship in 2012 and again in 2016.

International Events

The Jacksonville Axemen have hosted several international rugby league events in Jacksonville, starting with the “Australia Day Challege” in January of 2008. The event was co-hosted by the Axemen and actor Russell Crowe, who is owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, a professional rugby league team in Australia. Crowes team and the Superleague powerhouse team the Leeds Rhinos from England played the first international match of Rugby league in the United States. The event brought in over 12,500 fans from 40 States and 15 countries. In January of the following year the Axemen hosted the “Rhino Stampede to Florida” featuring a match-up between the Leeds Rhinos and the Salford City Reds, another professional rugby league team from England. The two teams were in Jacksonville for a 10 day training camp, and the event drew an estimated 7,000 fans to the city. In 2015, the Axemen co-hosted the Rugby League World Cup Qualifiers between the USA, Canada and Jamaica.