Eastern Suburbs District RUFC

Last updated

Eastern Suburbs District RUFC
Eastern Suburbs RUFC Logo.svg
Full nameEastern Suburbs District Rugby Union Football Club
Nickname(s)Beasts, Beasties
Founded1900
Location Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia
Ground(s) Woollahra Oval (Capacity: 5,000)
PresidentDavid Allen
Coach(es) Ben Batger
League(s) Shute Shield, NSWRU
2019Shute Shield Semi-Finalists, Colin Caird Shield Grand Finalists, Shell Trophy Premiers, Bill Simpson Shield Premiers
Kit left arm Eastsleft.png
Kit left arm.svg
Kit body Eastskit.png
Kit body.svg
Kit right arm Eastsright.png
Kit right arm.svg
Kit shorts Eastsshorts.png
Kit shorts.svg
Kit socks Eastssocks.png
Kit socks long.svg
Team kit
Official website
www.eastsrugby.com.au

The Eastern Suburbs District Rugby Union Football Club is a team in the Intrust Super Shute Shield, the premier club rugby union football competition in New South Wales.

Contents

The club is based in Rose Bay in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, and was founded in 1900.

Easts have won a total of 77 NSWRU premiership titles or shields across all grades, as well as 9 club championships.

Club information

  1. Centennial Park Oval was used as the club's home ground, Woollahra Oval, had complications with the installation of a synthetic turf, which was then relaid.

Club history

Eastern Suburbs District Rugby Union Football Club was formed at a meeting at the Paddington Town Hall on Thursday, 22 March 1900. [1] In an assembly presided over by the mayor and aldermen of Woollahra Council, 200 Eastern Suburbs residents turned out to hear Colonel J.C. Nield put forward a case for the birth of a local rugby club. The sports journalist Jack Davis motioned for the formation of the club and, from that point forth, Eastern Suburbs District Rugby Union Football club came into being. Easts Rugby is the oldest district rugby union club in Australia.

Since then, Easts Rugby has seen a lot of great players. The first ever try-scorer for Eastern Suburbs in a first grade premiership match was H.D. Thompson, who scored a try on 19 May 1900 playing Glebe at the Sydney Cricket Ground. That same day, Leo Finn made the conversion and became Easts first goal scorer. That year, Easts Rugby was honoured to have test forward A.J. (Tiger) Kelly become its first NSW representative, when he helped lead NSW to victory over QLD 11–9 in Sydney on 21 July 1900. However, it was not until 1903, when J.W. Maund was named in the Australian side, that Easts saw its first Wallaby.

As the years moved on, Easts Rugby saw success on many occasions. The club was helped along by a raft of talent that included H.H. (Dally) Messenger, [2] G.C. (Wakka) Walker, sports star Harald Baker, and Victorian Cross winner Bede Kenny. Easts also had a notable backline when Stanley R. Rowley – Australia's first Olympic sprint medalist – joined the team in the early 1900s. Other noted players included Dr Alex Ross, Englishman Ed Slater, Robert Westfield, Colin J. Sefton, Wallaby Murray Tate, reputed goal-kicker John Cox, World Cup winners Tony Daly and Jason Little, the world's best number 8 in his era Tim Gavin and H.R. (Perc) Newton who played a record 264 grade games for Easts.

In all, Easts Rugby has won a total of 79 premiership titles or shields across Grade and Colts from 1900 to 2013. Along with this, they have won 9 club championships and continue to be a breeding ground for superstars of the future.

A women's team was first established in 1994. Team captains were Sarah Roxburgh and Amy Copeland.

Honours

FIRST DIVISION

SECOND DIVISION

Recent titles in other grades:

Season By Season Records (incomplete)

Season Results
YearPlay off resultsWinsTiesLossesPoints
2013 [3] Quarter Finals909missing
2014 [4] Did not make play offs601232
2015 [5] Did not make play offs401427
2016 [6] Did not make play offs801054
2017 [7] Did not make play offs611140
2018 [8] Quarter Finals110760
2019 [9] Quarter Finals100752
2020 [10] Semi-finals90346
2021 [11] 3rd in standings70335
2022 [12] 1/8-Finals801049
2023 [13] Did not make play offs601237
2024 [14] In Progress60338

Season cut short by COVID-19.

Players of note

Nearby Clubs

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Sydney Oval</span> Sports venue

North Sydney Oval is a multi-use sporting facility in North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, owned and operated by North Sydney Council. First used as a cricket ground in 1867, it is also used for Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union and soccer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Harbour RFC</span> Australian rugby union club, based in Concord, NSW

The West Harbour Rugby Football Club is a team in the Shute Shield, the premier club rugby union football competition in New South Wales. The club is based in Concord in the Inner West of Sydney, and plays home matches at Concord Oval. Concord holds a place in rugby history as a venue for the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987. West Harbour's major sponsor is Burwood RSL and post match functions are held at Club Burwood. In 2020, the Pirates would play out of Drummoyne Oval as Concord Oval being NRL club Wests Tigers' training ground, the venue was deemed off limits for people in excess of the "bubble".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shute Shield</span> Rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia

The Shute Shield, known as the Charter Hall Shute Shield, is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team from the Sydney premiership grand final held at the end of the club rugby season.

The Tooheys New Cup, or TNC, was a rugby union competition established by the New South Wales Rugby Union (NSWRU) in 2002. Played in the second half of the rugby season after the Super 12 competition was completed, it was intended as a stepping stone between the existing grade rugby and Super Rugby competitions. The Tooheys New Cup ran for five seasons before it ceased to exist, with the short-lived Australian Rugby Championship taking its place in the second half of the rugby season of 2007. From 2008 onwards, an extended Shute Shield covered the entire season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union</span>

The New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union, or NSWSRU, is affiliated to the New South Wales Rugby Union and runs the competition affectionately known as "Subbies" rugby. There are around 7,500 players and 55 clubs competing across 6 divisions, making "Subbies" the largest centrally administered rugby competition in the world. NSWSRU is truly the grassroots of rugby in Sydney.

The Sydney University Football Club, founded in 1863, is the oldest club now playing rugby union in Australia, although this date is disputed by historian Tom Hickie who argues that it was 1865.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randwick DRUFC</span> Rugby team

Randwick District Rugby Union Football Club, also known as the Galloping Greens, is an Australian rugby union club in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney which competes in the Sydney premier grade rugby union competition. The club was formed in 1882 and since then has won 32 first grade premierships and six Australian club championships. It is one of the traditional powerhouses of the Shute Shield competition, winning 14 titles from 1978 to 1996. Randwick's colours are myrtle green and the club's home ground is Coogee Oval. In the 1980s the club produced many Wallabies, including the Ella brothers. Its history has seen many of Australia's best players represent the club, including the likes of George Gregan, Rocky Elsom and David Campese. In all, 93 Randwick players have pulled on a Wallaby jersey, and nine have had the honour of captaining their country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastwood Rugby Club</span> Australian rugby union club, based in Sydney

Eastwood Rugby is the Premier Rugby Club covering North West Sydney and plays in the Sydney Premier Rugby competition.

NSW Premier Cricket, formerly known as Sydney Grade Cricket. is a cricket competition played in Sydney, Australia. The competition began in 1893 when a number of clubs that had been playing for many years on an ad hoc basis voted to create a formal competition structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Suburbs Rugby Club</span> Rugby team

Northern Suburbs Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club in Sydney, Australia, that was formed in 1900 from the merger of the Pirates and Wallaroos clubs. The club competes in the Shute Shield competition run by the New South Wales Rugby Union. The club has produced 42 Wallaby representatives. The club's home ground is the historic North Sydney Oval on the North Shore of Sydney. The ground has been a venue for both codes of rugby and for cricket over more than a century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon RFC</span> Australian rugby union club, based in Sydney

Gordon Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based on the North Shore of Sydney. The club, known as the Gordon Highlanders, plays out of Chatswood Oval and competes in the New South Wales Rugby Union grade competition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Sydney Two Blues</span> Rugby team

Western Sydney Two Blues Rugby, formerly Parramatta Two Blues Rugby, is a rugby union club based in Parramatta, the second CBD of Sydney, Australia. The club was formed in 1879 and competes in the Shute Shield run by the New South Wales Rugby Union. One of the oldest clubs in the Sydney Premier Rugby competition the club has produced nineteen Wallabies over the years, starting with the great Bill Cerutti in 1936 through to the club's current, Tatafu Polota-Nau. To date Parramatta has played in eight First grade grand finals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Districts Rugby Club</span> Rugby team

Southern Districts Rugby Club is a rugby union club based in southern Sydney. The club currently competes in the New South Wales Rugby Union competition the Shute Shield. The club was formed by the amalgamation of the St George and Port Hacking clubs.

The 1909 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the second season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Eight teams contested during the season for the premiership and the Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield; seven teams from Sydney and one team from Newcastle, New South Wales.

The Sydney Roosters Juniors are officially known as the Eastern Suburbs District Junior Rugby League. It is an affiliation of junior clubs in the Eastern Suburbs area, covering the Woollahra and Waverley local government areas (LGAs), the northern parts of the Randwick LGA and the City of Sydney LGA, in Sydney, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waverley Rugby Club</span> Rugby team

The Waverley Rugby Football and Sporting Club is an Australian rugby club that was founded in 1971 by ex-students of the neighbouring Waverley College and their friends from other local schools. As the Club developed during the 1970s and 1980s, the name "Waverley", its players and supporters, became synonymous with diversity, reflecting the multiculturalism of the Waverley municipality. The club also developed into a sporting club playing netball, softball, touch football, volleyball and, in 2001, women's rugby. It is plays in the New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union, the largest rugby union football competition in New South Wales. The club is based in Bondi in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. In 2020, in its 50th season, Waverley's 1st and 3rd Grades reached the grand finals of the Kentwell and Whiddon Cups of the NSW Suburban Rugby Union competition. In 2022, Waverley had all 5 men's open teams reach the semi-finals as well as the U21s, playing in 5 grand finals and winning three: 2nds, 3rds & U21s. In 2023, Waverley had all 5 men's open teams again reach the semi-finals, playing in 3 grand finals and winning all three: 3rds, 4ths & 5ths.

Lane Cove Rugby Union Football Club is a rugby union club founded in 1949 and which participates in the New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union ("Subbies") competition. The club is situated in Lane Cove in Sydney, Australia. The home ground is Tantallon Oval. The club was successful in Sydney Rugby through the 1950s and 1960s and competitive in Division One Sub-Districts into the 1980s with victories including the Under 21 New South Wales State Premiership, the Bruce Graham Shield, Kentwell Cup, Whiddon Cup, Judd Cup trophies among others. Notable players have included Wallabies Ken Yanz and Saxon White, and Kangaroo Greg Florimo. Having been historically a Division One Club, Lane Cove seniors currently plays in New South Wales' Subbies' Division Five, while the thriving Lane Cove Juniors participate in the Gordon Juniors competition.

Scott Bowen is an Australian former rugby union player. He played in the position of fly-half and represented the Wallabies nine times between 1993 and 1996. He is currently an assistant with the NSW Waratahs in the Super Rugby tournament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union</span>

The Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union is one of Australia's oldest rugby union organisations, with a history dating back to the mid 19th century. The union is based in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.

References

  1. The Cynic. "Football Notes".
  2. Fagan, Sean. "The Game Begins". National Museum of Australia.
  3. "Shute Shield 2013".
  4. "Shute Shield 2014".
  5. "Shute Shield 2015".
  6. "Shute Shield 2016".
  7. "Shute Shield 2017".
  8. "Shute Shield 2018".
  9. "Shute Shield 2019".
  10. "Shue Shield 2020".
  11. "Shute Shield 2021".
  12. "Shute Shield 2022".
  13. "Shute Shield 2023".
  14. "Shute Shield 2024". Up to date as of 21 June 2024.