Rugby union in Australia has a history of organised competition dating back to the late 1860s. Although traditionally most popular in Australia's rugby football strongholds of New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, it is played throughout the nation.
Currently there is no nationwide domestic competition for rugby union in Australia following the disbandment of the National Rugby Championship in 2020. Competitions below the level of Super Rugby are traditional capital city competitions, such as the Shute Shield of Sydney, Queensland Premier Rugby of Brisbane, the ACTRU Premier Division in Canberra, and Perth's Fortescue Premier Grade. These city-based competitions have traditionally formed the highest level of domestic competition for the sport in Australia.
The national governing body of Rugby Australia launched a new top-level women's 15s competition known as Super W in 2018 featuring five clubs branded as state/territorial teams—the ACT, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.
Rugby union holds the match attendance record of any football code in New South Wales (109,874), Western Australia (61,241) and the Australian Capital Territory (28,753).
The NSW team, 1883.The Australia national team in 1899.
Accounts of rugby being played in the Colony of New South Wales date back to the 1840s. Some settlers would have been familiar with earlier forms of the game even before it was formally codified at Rugby School in 1845.[7]
Rugby arrived in the Colony of Victoria as early as the 1850s. Tom Wills founder of Australian rules was of the rugby school and attempted to introduce the code into Melbourne schools in 1858 before settling on a compromise of rules. Variations of rugby were played by clubs south of the Yarra, including possibly South Yarra as early as 1858.[8] In 1860 J. B. Thompson published the Rugby Rules (along with the Victorian and Eton Rules) in the widely distributed The Victorian Cricketer's Guide.[9]
The Rugby code was introduced to schools in Sydney from the early 1860s. Players familiar with the game from the Sydney schools, along with increased arrivals from England and elsewhere, soon led to organised club football commencing in Sydney.[10] Rugby games were being played at Sydney University in the 1860s.[11]
The first rugby union club to be established in Australia was Sydney University's in 1864.[12] In 1869, Newington College was the first Australian school to play rugby in a match against the University of Sydney.[13][14] A decade after the first club was formed, a body called the Southern Rugby Union was formed as a result of a meeting at the Oxford Hotel in Sydney,[15] a Sydney competition was established, which was administered from the England Rugby headquarters at Twickenham[citation needed]. The first competition commenced in Sydney the following year in 1875 with 6 teams.[citation needed]
Prominent southern Melbourne football clubs including Albert Park and South Melbourne strongly advocated for rugby rules throughout the 1860s and 1870s,[16] however this did not meet favour with the more powerful clubs in the colony.
The 'Waratah' Rugby Club invited Australian rules football club, the Carlton Football Club to play two matches, one under rugby rules and one under Australian rules.[18] On Saturday 23 June, 3,000 spectators watched Waratah beat Carlton at rugby at the Albert Cricket Ground in Redfern.[18] In the return leg, Carlton defeated Waratah under Australian rules.[18] The first inter-colonial game occurred on 12 August 1882, when players from the four Queensland clubs (who played both rugby and Australian rules football) travelled to NSW. NSW won by 28 points to 4 at the Association Ground (later to be renamed the Sydney Cricket Ground) in front of 4,000 spectators.[19] Later that same year, the Southern Rugby Union undertook its inaugural tour of New Zealand, winning four of its seven matches.[20]
On 2 November, in 1883, the Northern Rugby Union was formed as the rugby body in Queensland after a meeting at the Exchange Hotel. As a result of the formation of the new body, several prominent grammar schools took up rugby as opposed to Melbourne Rules. The following year, a New Zealand party went to Australia and the first club competition was held in Queensland. In 1888 the Melbourne Rugby Union was formed in Victoria. In 1892, the rugby bodies in Australia dropped Southern and Northern from their titles, adopting New South Wales and Queensland respectively. That year the first British and Irish Lions tour was carried out. Although unsanctioned by official bodies in Europe, the 21-man squad went to both Australia and New Zealand.
In 1899, the national team of Australia played their first match, and the Hospital's Cup became an annual competition in Queensland.
1900s to 1940s
A rugby game in Queensland during the early 1900s.Toowoomba Grammar School Rugby Union Team, 1927.
Australia played its first test against New Zealand in 1903 in front of a crowd of 30,000 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.[citation needed] In 1907, Australia again played New Zealand, at the same venue as the 1903 match, with crowd numbers reaching 50,000.[citation needed] This figure would not be surpassed again in Australian rugby union until after the game turned professional.
The British Isles team visited Australia in 1904 and 1908, and at the 1908 Summer Olympics, the Australian team defeated England to win the gold medal in rugby. That same year, the New South Wales Rugby League broke away from the NSWRU, with the Queensland Rugby League following suit from the QRU in 1909.
An event that was to greatly shape rugby union's future in Australia was the onset of World War I in 1914. Rugby competitions were suspended due to an overwhelmingly high percentage of rugby players enlisting to serve in the Australian Imperial Force.
The enlistment of rugby players was so quick and extensive that, by 1915, a Sydney newspaper reported: "According to figures prepared by Mr W. W. Hill, secretary of the New South Wales Rugby Union, 197 out of 220 regular first grade players are on active service, or 90 percent."
Weakened by the loss of its players to the war effort, the Queensland Rugby Union was dissolved in 1919. It was not until 1928 that the union was re-formed and the Brisbane clubs and Great Public Schools returned to playing the rugby union code.
In 1931, Charles Bathurst, 1st Viscount Bledisloe, as Governor of New Zealand, donated a sporting trophy called the Bledisloe Cup for competition between Australia and New Zealand. The first game was held that year at Eden Park, though the official start of the competition is disputed between that game and the 1932 New Zealand tour to Australia.
Until the late 1940s, the administration of the Australian team, including all tours, was handled by New South Wales, being the senior union. A national body, the Australian Rugby Football Union was formed at a conference in Sydney in 1945, acting initially in an advisory capacity only,[21] and in 1949 was formally constituted and joined the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB), representing Australia.
Apparently Australian rugby union then existed in a state of suspended animation until the 1980s.
1980s to present
In 1987, the first ever Rugby World Cup was held in both Australia and New Zealand, as a result of both the respective rugby bodies putting forth the idea to the IRB. Australia was defeated by France in the semifinal stage.
The 1991 Rugby World Cup took place in Europe, and saw Australia defeat England 12-6 in the Final, winning their first World Cup after having triumphed over their fierce rivals New Zealand in the semifinal.
With rugby union becoming an openly professional sport in 1995, after more than a century of a professed amateur status, major changes were seen in both the club and international game. The Super 12 rugby competition was born that year. The tournament involved 12 provincial sides from three countries; New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Australia entered three sides into the competition; ACT Brumbies, Queensland Reds and the New South Wales Waratahs. The year also saw the first Tri Nations Series, between the three Super 12 countries.
In 1999, the Bledisloe Cup match between Australia and New Zealand was staged at the Homebush Olympic Stadium, now known as ANZ Stadium. The game attracted a then world record crowd for a rugby union match of 107,042 to see Australia win with its greatest margin over New Zealand by 28–7. In 2000 this record was raised again when a crowd of 109,874 witnessed the 'Greatest ever Rugby Match'. New Zealand took an early lead of 24-nil after 11 minutes only to see Australia draw level at 24 all by half time, and the match was decided by a Jonah Lomu try to finish in favour of New Zealand by 39–35.
The Wallabies were champions of the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Wales, claiming their second Webb Ellis Cup trophy. In doing this, Australia became the first team to win multiple world cups.
The year 2003 saw the staging of the Rugby World Cup in Australia. The fifth Rugby World Cup was held in various Australian cities from October to November in 2003. Matches were played all across the country, in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Townsville, Gosford, Wollongong and Launceston. The tournament was hailed as a huge success, an estimated 40,000 international spectators travelled to Australia for the event, some estimations said that a $100 million may have been injected into the Australian economy. The Australian Rugby Union said that revenues exceeded all expectations, the tournament surplus was estimated to be at $44.5 million.[22] The hosting of the World Cup in Australia also saw an increase in Super 12 crowds and junior participation. In 2005, to celebrate a decade of professional rugby union in Australia, the Wallaby Team of the Decade was announced.
Popularity concerns in 21st Century
A major concern for Australian rugby union in the 21st century is the popularity, with the sports popularity widely regarded to be declining.[23] The sport has had to deal with growing popularity of Soccer, and Basketball (Which is especially popular among youths). The 2006 Men’s FIFA World Cup saw Australia make its first World Cup appearance since 1974, and the success of the Matildas in the highly anticipated 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup could be a potential reason for the declining popularity of rugby union. Soccer is especially popular among Migrants and the Matildas are often considered sporting heroes to many Australians, particularly young girls. Another potential reason for the perceived decline is its association with the middle to upper class. Rugby Union remained amateur until 1995, when it became a professional sport
The Headquarters of Rugby Australia. Moore Park, Sydney
Rugby union in Australia is governed by Rugby Australia, which is a member of World Rugby (WR). There are constituent state and territory unions with the New South Wales Rugby Union and Queensland Rugby Union traditionally being the dominant members, reflecting the games higher status in these states. However, every state and territory in Australia is represented by their respective union, and in recent years, the ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union has elevated itself to competitive equality with NSW and Queensland—though not in governance, as NSW and Queensland have more representatives on the ARU board than the other state and territorial unions. Rugby Australia was formed in 1949 as the Australian Rugby Union; before this time the NSWRU was responsible for international fixtures for Australian teams.
Past and present professional Australian rugby players are represented by the Rugby Union Players Association.
Participation
In 2000, figures from World Rugby (then the IRB) show there were just over 38,000 registered adult rugby union players in Australia, of which the states of New South Wales and Queensland accounted for 82.3% of all senior players. The highest participation rate was 0.8%, in the Australian Capital Territory.[24]
The Rugby Au Annual Report 2019 records participation figures for club XV as 85,059 and club 7s as 32,119 resulting in a total club rugby participation figure of 117,178. [25]
Whilst regularly positioned as an exclusively private school sport, 61% of schools delivering Rugby programs in 2018 were government schools. [27] In a concerted effort to build game awareness and increase club participation opportunities, Rugby AU has engaged in a National Schools Strategy to grow school based XV participation (to link with local clubs) that saw five new XV competitions launched in 2019 alone for students attending 17 non-traditional Rugby schools. As at 2019, the total number of school students playing either XV or 7s rugby was almost 60,000. [28]
Australian Schools representative sides have been selected since 1969 with that year's team having toured South Africa. The Australian Schools Rugby Union is an independent incorporated association run by volunteer members of the teaching profession and supporters who believe rugby has a unique ethos and benefits that contribute to the broader education of young people. The association first ran the Australian Schools Championship in 1975 and since then some 170 schools representatives have gone on to play for the Wallabies with countless more representing their State or playing professionally across the world. [29]
The popularity of Rugby for women has been growing steadily in recent years following increased visibility of women's pathways and representative teams such as Buildcorp Wallaroos and national 7s teams. As at 2019, females account for approximately 27% of total playing participation.[30]
The Wallabies is Australia's national rugby union team. Australia has won the World Cup on two occasions, in 1991 against England in England, and then again in 1999 in Wales against France. The team plays in green and gold, which have traditionally been Australia's sporting colours. Australia has been playing internationals since 1899, when they played a visiting British Isles team on 24 June, defeating them by 13 points to 3.
The Wallabies play in the Southern Hemisphere's principal international competition. From 1996 through 2011, this was the Tri Nations, also involving the New Zealand All Blacks and the South Africa Springboks. Since 2012, the tournament has been renamed The Rugby Championship and features the Argentina Pumas.
The rivalry with the New Zealand All Blacks is considered the marquee rivalry for the game of Rugby in Australia and the teams contest the Bledisloe Cup on an annual basis. The biggest crowd for a Bledisloe match was 109,874 in Sydney.[33]
In addition to participating in The Rugby Championship, the Wallabies host Northern Hemisphere sides in the "July Window" such as France, England, Ireland etc., and tour to the Northern Hemisphere in the "November Window". Whilst the July Window will usually see a series of test matches played against one foreign team such as the 2021 French three-test-tour, the end of year tours will generally see a number of one-off games against different national sides. End of year tour games above the three required by World Rugby can generate as much as $1.5 million in revenue for Rugby AU. [34]
The women's team, the Wallaroos have been playing international rugby since 1994, and have competed at four Women's Rugby World Cups. Their best finish was third in 2010.
Australia A is a team of players who are being developed as future Wallaby players. They play matches against touring teams as well as compete in the Pacific Nations Cup.
The country has hosted one leg of the Sevens World Series in each season since 2006–07. From 2007 through 2011, the Adelaide Sevens was held in that city in March or April. Starting with the 2011–12 season, the Australian leg moved to the Gold Coast and was renamed the Gold Coast Sevens. In addition, the event moved to November, becoming the first tournament of each season. The tournament moved to October beginning in the 2012–13 season, but remained the season opener through 2014–15. Since the 2015–16 series, the event has been held in Sydney, and is now fourth on the series schedule.
Australia also has an under 21 side, an under 20 side, an under 19 side and a schoolboys team.
Competitions, tournaments and tours
International tournaments
Rugby World Cup
Australia co-hosted the first Rugby World Cup, along with New Zealand in 1987. It acted as host for the second time in 2003. Australia has won twice, in 1991 and 1999.
The Tri Nations Series was an annual tournament held between Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa from 1996 through 2011. With Argentina's entry into the tournament in 2012, the competition has been renamed The Rugby Championship.
The Bledisloe Cup is a trophy introduced by the Governor General of New Zealand, Lord Bledisloe, in 1947 to honour the rivalry between New Zealand and Australia. The Cup is awarded to the winner of each annual series of test matches played. Matches played at Rugby World Cups do not count towards the competition.
The Australian rugby team annually plays a test series against other squads, either at home acting as host nation to visiting teams, or touring overseas.
Rugby's domestic presence in Australia
When Australia became one of the world's best sides in the 1980s, the team was largely drawn from the NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds. The ACT Brumbies had become another strong province by the 1990s and joined the Super 12 competition with the Waratahs and Reds in 1996, playing against the top rugby provinces from New Zealand and South Africa. The Western Force, based in Perth, joined the competition in 2006 when it expanded to become the Super 14, and the Melbourne Rebels were added when it became Super Rugby in 2011.
The strongholds of the game are still in New South Wales and Queensland where rugby football, initially rugby union and later rugby league, has been the dominant code since the 1880s. Rugby was introduced to other cities and regions at around the same time but Melbourne rules (now Australian football) was preferred in the southern states. Rugby union had a diminished national profile for many decades after rugby league became the more popular football code in Sydney and Brisbane prior to the first world war. The game gradually expanded its reach again after the second world war, and rugby union was re-established in most areas of the country by the 1970s, however rugby league is by far the more dominant code in NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
Prior to the creation of professional Super Rugby in 1996, there were a number of other Oceania-African competitions that featured representative teams from both Queensland and New South Wales, such as the Super 10 competition, which Queensland won twice. Before that there was the South Pacific Championship, also known as the Super 6. State teams have been playing each other since the late 1800s, when Queensland first took on New South Wales in Sydney.[citation needed] The Australian Provincial Championship (APC) was also played in 2006, featuring the Australian Super 14 teams.
In late 2013, Rugby Australia (then known as the Australian Rugby Union) announced plans to launch a new domestic competition to be known as the National Rugby Championship (NRC) with the goal of bridging the gap between club rugby and Super Rugby. Originally expected to involve 10 teams,[35] and ultimately unveiled in March 2014 with nine teams,[36] the NRC began play in August 2014, with the season running through to November.[36] The inaugural NRC teams included four in NSW, two in Queensland and one each in Canberra, Melbourne and Perth.[36] After the 2016 season, one of the NSW teams was dropped from the competition and was replaced by the Fijian Drua, an effective developmental side for the Fijinational team. The competition was disbanded in 2020.
The country's previous attempt to launch a national domestic competition came in 2007 in the form of the Australian Rugby Championship (ARC). It included eight teams in all, with a geographic distribution almost identical to that of the first three seasons of the NRC, with the exception of one fewer NSW team. The aim of the competition, scheduled to run from August finishing in October with the final, was similar to that of the NRC. The ARU scrapped the competition for the 2008 season due to the union suffering an A$4.7 million loss.[37]
Each major city and many country areas support club rugby competitions in Australia. The club competitions in NSW and Queensland are the oldest and most prestigious. The NSWRU runs the Shute Shield, the highest level in New South Wales along with also running the NSW Country Championships played by regional representative teams from country areas in NSW. Similarly the QRU runs the Queensland Premier Rugby competition, which is the top Brisbane club competition, as well as the Queensland Country Championships for representative teams in the major regions of greater Queensland. All other states also run their own club competitions of varying strength, but the NSW and Queensland competitions have historically been regarded as the major domestic competitions below Super Rugby and are now the major level below the NRC.
Television coverage
The Nine Network owns the broadcast rights to the majority of major Australian and Southern Hemisphere competitions and airs them on through streaming service Stan, as well as providing select coverage on its free-to-air television channels.[38]
Within the first year of the new deal, Super Rugby games were regularly gathering more than 120 000 on 9Gem and Stan Sport had more than 250 000 subscribers. The Super Rugby AU Final between Queensland and the ACT pulled more than 1.3 million viewers across all platforms. Rugby Australia Chairman Hamish McLennan hailed it as a turning point for the sport.[citation needed] 2023 figures are 71,000 for Round 1 of Super Rugby 2023.
Hickie, Tom V (1983). The Game for the Game Itself; The Development of Sub-District Rugby in Sydney. Sydney Sub-Districts Rugby Union. ISBN978-0959194104.
The Australia men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the touring British Isles team.
The New South Wales Waratahs, referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the state, are represented by the Brumbies, who are based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT).
Matthew Coleman Burke is an Australian former international rugby union player and sport presenter on Sydney's 10 News First.
Morgan Turinui is an Australian rugby union footballer who currently is a rugby commentator for Stan Sport and Channel Nine in Australia.
Simon Paul Poidevin is a former Australian rugby union player who played as a flanker. Poidevin made his Test debut for Australia against Fiji during the 1980 tour of Fiji. He was a member of the Wallabies side that defeated New Zealand 2–1 in the 1980 Bledisloe Cup series. He toured with the Eighth Wallabies for the 1984 Australia rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland that won rugby union's "grand slam", the first Australian side to defeat all four home nations, England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, on a tour. He debuted as captain of the Wallabies in a two-Test series against Argentina in 1986, substituting for the absent Andrew Slack. He was a member of the Wallabies on the 1986 Australia rugby union tour of New Zealand that beat the All Blacks, one of six international teams and second Australian team to win a Test series in New Zealand. During the 1987 Rugby World Cup, he overtook Peter Johnson as Australia's most capped Test player against Japan, captaining the Wallabies for the third time in his 43rd cap. He captained the Wallabies on a fourth and final occasion on the 1987 Australia rugby union tour of Argentina before injury ended his tour prematurely. In 1988, he briefly retired from international rugby, reversing his decision 42 days later ahead of the 1988 Bledisloe Cup series. Following this series, Poidevin returned to the Australian side for the single 1989 Bledisloe Cup Test. He returned full-time to the Australian national squad for the 1991 season. Poidevin was a member of the Wallabies that won the 1991 Rugby World Cup, after which he retired from international rugby union.
Berrick Steven Barnes is a former Australian professional rugby union footballer. His usual position is fly-half or inside centre. He is previously played with Japanese Top League clubs Panasonic Wild Knights and the Ricoh Black Rams, as well as in the Super Rugby competition with the NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds. He also played for the Wallabies in international matches.
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".
Drew Alan Mitchell is a former Australian rugby union professional player. He played on the wing or as fullback. Up to the 2006 season he played for the Queensland Reds. He played for the Western Force for the 2007–09 Super 14 seasons. From 2010 to 2013 he played for the New South Wales Waratahs. Since 2013 he has played for RC Toulon. He made his debut for Australia in 2005 and is Australia's highest try scorer in World Cup history.
Rocky Elsom is an Australian former rugby union player. He played the positions of flanker and number eight. He was selected for 75 caps for Australia and scored 75 points. He is the most capped Australian blindside flanker. Elsom was the 76th Australian test captain, having replaced Stirling Mortlock in 2009 for two years. He played for the Wallabies from 2005 until 2011. Elsom played professionally for New South Wales, Brumbies and Leinster.
Lachlan 'Lachie' David Turner is an Australian professional rugby union player who retired at the end of 2018 season. In his usual position of wing. He has a strong kicking game, which allows him to also play at fullback.
Ewen James Andrew McKenzie is an Australian professional rugby union coach and a former international rugby player. He played for Australia's World Cup winning team in 1991 and earned 51 caps for the Wallabies during his test career. McKenzie was head coach of the Australian team from 2013 to 2014. He has coached in both southern and northern hemispheres, in Super Rugby for the Waratahs and Reds, and in France at Top 14 side Stade Français. During his playing days he was a prop and, in a representative career spanning from 1987 to 1997, he played nine seasons for the NSW Waratahs and two for the ACT Brumbies.
Darren Kevin Junee is an Australian former rugby union and rugby league footballer. He was an Australian rugby union representative and had a first grade rugby league career with the Sydney Roosters in the NSWRFL competition.
The first clash in Rugby Union between Australia and New Zealand took place in a test match on 15 August 1903 in Sydney, New South Wales. On that occasion, New Zealand won 22–3.
Rugby union in Victoria describes the sport of rugby union being played and watched in the state of Victoria in Australia. The code was first introduced some time between the 1850s and 1880s but remained a minor sport played primarily in the private schools and amongst interstate expats. This has changed, particularly since the professionalisation of the game in the mid 1990s.
Rugby union has a long history in Australia, with the first club being formed in 1863 at Sydney University. Today it holds tier one status with World Rugby and has over 82,000 players nationwide.
The Australian Provincial Championship, or APC was a rugby union football competition played in Australia. It was one of several provincial competitions since the late 1960s, including the Wallaby Trophy and Ricoh National Championship, that have not continued.
Bernard Foley is an Australian rugby player of Irish descent. He plays professionally for the Australia national rugby team and the New South Wales Waratahs in Super Rugby. He can cover both fullback and fly-half as well as inside centre. Foley has earned the nickname "the iceman" after successful game winning penalty goals, 2 August 2014, 18 October 2015.
Jed Holloway is an Australian professional rugby union footballer. He currently plays for NSW Country Eagles, Waratahs and the Wallabies. His usual playing positions are number 8, flanker or lock.
Rugby union in New South Wales is one of the leading professional and recreational team sports. Rugby football began to be played in Sydney’s schools in the early 1860s. In the more than 150 years since, the game in New South Wales has grown to include more than 100,000 participants and the Rugby World Cup Final has been hosted in Sydney.
Jordan Petaia is an Australian rugby professional player currently playing for the Queensland Reds in the Super Rugby and for Australia in international matches. A utility back, Petaia is most often used in the centres for both club and country.
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