The Czech Association of Rugby League (CZARL) began life in early 2006, under the guidance of former Czech rugby union international Milan Mrtýnek and Englishman Iain Sellers. After seeing a professional rugby league game in England, and eager to give the sport a try, Mrtýnek and Sellers contacted Jan Sluka, a Czech who had played rugby league in Ireland, and began to put a squad together.

The squad's first training session, in February 2006, was held in an indoor basketball hall because of an extremely fierce Czech winter. From these modest beginnings, the Czech team, with support from the Rugby League European Federation, went on to play four full games in their debut season.

Perhaps inevitably, given the unfamiliarity of the game, the Czech Republic lost all four matches, but the margins of defeat were surprisingly narrow. The Czechs played their first two games against the touring British Student Pioneers team. A 29-8 loss in Prague was followed by a more encouraging 34-22 defeat in Olomouc.

This was followed by the first away trip to Rotterdam to face the Netherlands Tasman team, where the newcomers were narrowly defeated 34-28. In their final game of the season, also in Prague, the Czechs were beaten 36-28 by Serbia, in the inaugural "Slavic Cup" match between the two countries.