| Governing body | Australian Rugby Union |
|---|---|
| National team | Australia |
| Nickname(s) | Wallabies |
| First played | 25 July 1839,[1] Sydney, New South Wales |
| Registered players | 86,952 (total) 41,049 (adult)[2] |
| Clubs | 770 |
| Competitions | |
| National | |
| Rugby World Cup | |
| The Rugby Championship | |
| Pacific Nations Cup | |
| Rugby World Cup Sevens | |
| IRB Sevens World Series | |
| Gold Coast Sevens | |
| Club | |
| Super Rugby | |
| Australian Rugby Championship | |
| Tooheys New Cup | |
| Queensland Premier Rugby | |
| ACTRU Premier Division | |
| Audience records | |
| Single match | 109,874 Australia v New Zealand, (Telstra Stadium) 15 July 2000 |
Rugby union is the third most popular winter sport in Australia, with its history dating back to 1864.
The principal competition in Australian rugby union is Super Rugby, which is a multi-regional competition across the southern hemisphere. With the competition expanding from 14 teams to 15 for 2011, Australia entered five regional franchises—the Reds of Queensland, the Waratahs of New South Wales, the Brumbies of the Australian Capital Territory, the Force of Western Australia and the competition's newest team, the Melbourne Rebels of Victoria. The Australian Rugby Championship was introduced as the next level below the Super 14 in 2007, before its demise the same year due to lack of interest. Traditional capital city competitions, such as the Shute Shield of Sydney and the Queensland Premier Rugby of Brisbane are currently the highest level of domestic competition.
The national team are the Wallabies, who have won the Rugby World Cup twice, in 1991 and in 1999. The Wallabies play in Australia's traditional sporting colours of green and gold. They are considered one of the top rugby nations in the world, due to their success at the World Cup, and consistently high world ranking.
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The first rugby union club that was established in Australia was at Sydney University in 1864.[3] 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,[4] a Sydney competition was established, which was administered from the England Rugby headquarters at Twickenham. The first competition commenced the following year in 1865 with 6 teams.
The earliest record of rugby games being played in Queensland was in 1876.[5]
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.[6] On Saturday 23 June, 3,000 spectators watched Waratah beat Carlton at rugby at the Albert Cricket Ground in Redfern.[6] In the return leg, Carlton defeated Waratah under Australian rules.[6] A week later over 100 footballers formed the New South Wales Football Association (NSWFA) to play the Australian game.[6] With its origins, image and administration anchored in England, supporters of rugby saw the code as a symbol and reminder of their Englishness.[7]
The first inter-colonial game occurred in 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 Sydney Cricket Ground in front of 4,000 spectators.
On 2 November, in 1883, the Northern Rugby Union is 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 GPS schools took up rugby as opposed to Melbourne Rules. That same year, the Southern Rugby Union undertakes its inaugural tour of New Zealand, the following year, a New Zealand party comes to Australia and the first club competition is held in Queensland. In 1888 the Melbourne Rugby Union is formed in Victoria. In 1892, the rugby bodies in Australia drop 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. The Hospital's Cup becomes an annual competition in Queensland. In 1903, Australia played its first test against the All Blacks, in front of a crowd of 30,000 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. In 1907, Australia again played the All Blacks, at the same venue as the 1903 match, with crowd numbers reaching 50,000. This figure would not be surpassed again by rugby union at the ground after the start of rugby league in 1908 (the SFS commenced as the Sydney rectangular venue for rugby league and union in 1988).
By the time of the 1910 British Lions rugby league tour, rugby league was well entrenched as the major winter sport in all of Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, surpassing rugby union. This was a position from which rugby union would never recover in Australia.
An event that was to greatly shape rugby union's future in Australia was the onset of World War I in 1914. While rugby league, which had been introduced to Australia in 1908, continued to play in the form of NSWRL competitions, rugby union competitions were suspended due to an overwhelmingly high percentage of rugby union players enlisting to serve in the Australian Imperial Force.
The enlistment of rugby union 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. In the aftermath of the war, a large number of national representatives would defect to rugby league, giving rugby league a strong position in the states of New South Wales and Queensland, which it continues to maintain to this day.
In 1928 the QRU reformed, and the GPS and major clubs returned to rugby union. In 1931, the governor of New Zealand donated a sporting trophy called the Bledisloe Cup, named appropriately after Charles Bathurst, 1st Viscount Bledisloe, 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.
The late 1940s saw the construction of a national governing body, as opposed to the NSWRU being the main organisation. In 1949, the Australian Rugby Union joined the International Rugby Board. 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.
With rugby union becoming an openly professional sport in 1995, after more than a century of a stricly-enforced amateur code, major changes were seen in both the club and international game. The Super 12 rugby competition was born that year. The tournament involved 12 provincinal sides from three counties; 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 Tri Nations Series, between the three Super 12 countries.
In 1999, the Bledisloe Cup match between Australia and the New Zealand All Blacks was staged at the Homebush Olympic Stadium, now known as ANZ Stadium. The game attracted a then world record crowd of 107,042 for a rugby union match. In 2000 this was bettered when a crowd of 109,874 witnessed the 'Greatest ever Rugby Match' when a Jonah Lomu try sealed a 39–35 All Blacks win over the Wallabies. The All Blacks had led 24-nil after 11 minutes only to see Australia draw level at 24 all by half time.
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 multiple winners of the tournament.
The year 2003 saw the staging of the Rugby World Cup in Australia. Prior to the tournament, three high profile Kangaroo rugby league players switched codes; Wendell Sailor, Mat Rogers and Lote Tuqiri. 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.[8] 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.
Rugby union in Australia is governed by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) which is a member of the International Rugby Board (IRB). 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. The ARU was formed in 1949 and 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.
In 2009, IRB figures show there are just over 38,000 registered adult rugby union players in Australia, of which the states of New South Wales and Queensland account for 82.3% of all senior players. The highest participation rate is 0.8% in the Australian Capital Territory.[9]
In NSW, major support comes from the private schools who still maintain Union over league. In Sydney there are three major private school associations contributing the most support. These are the GPS, CAS and ISA, the major of these being the GPS which includes St Ignatius' College, Riverview and St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill whose game against each other is broadcast on the ABC every year.
It is these private schools that continue the participation of rugby union, but lead to the sport being seen as an elitist sport and a game made for upper class Australians.
The Wallabies are Australia's national rugby union team. Australia has won the World Cup on two occasions, in 1991 against England at Twickenham, 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 the visiting British Isles team on 24 June. They won their first outing, defeating the British team 13 to 3. The rivalry with the New Zealand All Blacks is considered the marquee rivalry for the game of Rugby Union 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.[10] The Wallabies play in the Southern Hemisphere's principal international competition. From 1996 through 2011, this was the Tri Nations, also involving the All Blacks and the Springboks from South Africa. Beginning in 2012, the tournament will be rechristened The Rugby Championship and will also feature the Pumas of Argentina.
Other rivalries that Australia once held such as games against England, Wales and France are now considered less relevant, aggravated by under-strength northern hemisphere teams touring Australia during Rugby World Cup years. This practice of sending grossly under strength national sides on tour during the lead up to a Rugby World Cup was addressed by the IRB during the 2007 Rugby World Cup following formal complaints from the three major Unions from the southern hemisphere including the ARU.
Australia also has a successful sevens team which competes in the IRB Sevens World Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games. They have won the Hong Kong Sevens event on five occasions.
The country has hosted one leg of the IRB 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.
Australia A is a team of players who are being developed as future Wallaby players. They plays matches against touring teams as well as compete in the Pacific Nations Cup.
The women's team, the Wallaroos have been playing international rugby since 1994, and have competed at three Women's Rugby World Cups.
Australia also has an under 21 side, an under 20 side, an under 19 side and a schoolboys team.
Australia co-hosted the first Rugby World Cup, along with New Zealand in 1987. It acted as host to the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Australia has won twice, in 1991 and 1999.
The Bledisloe Cup was 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 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 Australian rugby team annually plays a test series against other squads, either at home acting as host nation to visiting teams, or touring overseas.
Super Rugby, previously known as Super 12 and Super 14, is a multi-regional rugby union competition that involves teams from three nations across the southern hemisphere; Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. As of the 2011 season, Australia has five sides in the now 15-team competition: the previously existing Queensland Reds, New South Wales Waratahs, Brumbies (playing out of Canberra) and Western Force and the expansion Melbourne Rebels. 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 actually won twice. Before that there was the Super Sixes competition. State teams have been playing each other since the late 1800s, when Queensland took on New South Wales in Sydney. The Brumbies have won the competition twice and the Reds once, and the Waratahs have made the finals. The Australian Provincial Championship (APC) was also played in 2006, featuring the Australian Super 14 teams.
In 2007 the Australian Rugby Championship (ARC) was introduced. It included three teams in NSW, two in QLD and teams in Canberra, Melbourne and Perth. The aim of the eight team comp was to bridge the gap between Super 14 and club rugby. The competition was scheduled to run from August finishing in October with the final.
The Australian Rugby Union decided to scrap the competition for the 2008 season due to the union suffering a A$4.7 million loss.[11]
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 NSW and Queensland competitions are generally regarded as the major domestic competitions below Super Rugby.
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