The team plays in the Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) and is intended to draw most of its players from the rugby unions of Canada's five Eastern provinces: Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island (PEI) and Newfoundland & Labrador.

Additionally, the RCSL was disbanded, to be replaced with a new Under-20 league called the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship.

Though St. John's is actually the 5th largest urban area in the region (after Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax and Gatineau), it had a strong rugby community at the time the league was created.

Specifically, it had a strong recent tradition of success in national competitions, with the Newfoundland Rock having won the RCSL's Eastern Division (which included Ontario teams) five of the seven years immediately preceding the creation of the ARC.

Therefore, Rugby Canada decided to support the placement of the "Eastern / Atlantic Canadian" team in St. John's.