23-532: 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 major trophy in "Subbies"
46-548: A 3rd grade team and push for the revived Division 4, making clubs either make players miss out on playing if unable to find a Halligan Cup fixture (lack of a 2nd grade) or trying to create a 3rd grade (possibly making players play 2 or more games of rugby). Cross Divisional Cowboy Cup is competed by every team in Suburban Rugby. Each team, including Halligan Cup and Radford Cup competitions which are not included within divisional club championship competitions, earns points for
69-713: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Drummoyne DRFC The Drummoyne District Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in Drummoyne, New South Wales , in Sydney, Australia. Its predecessor Glebe and Balmain Rugby Clubs are among the oldest in Australia and today it competes prominently in the First Division of the New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union . According to its website,
92-404: Is based on club championship results down to third division. There have been problems in recent years fielding a 4th Division competition (clubs with 3 grade teams). 4th Division was disbanded after the 2008 season, where only six clubs participated, and was further weakened with the withdrawal of two of the 3rd grade teams. The 4th Division was resurrected in 2011, again with six clubs, but again
115-591: Is selected from players within the competition to play against other amateur representative sides. The Maher-Ross Cup is contested by NSW Suburban and NSW Country , and the Barraclough Shield is awarded to the winner of the interstate match between the NSW Suburban and Queensland Suburban teams. The Barraclough Shield was contested annually from 1966, until 2016. New South Wales Rugby Union The New South Wales Rugby Union ( NSWRU ), formerly known as
138-652: Is the Kentwell Cup that is awarded to the first grade premiers of the first division competition. The NSWSRU selects representative sides to compete against New South Wales Country for the Maher-Ross Cup, and Queensland Suburban for the Barraclough Shield . Football under rugby rules began to be played in the 1860s in Sydney's schools. Some of these former students wanted to go on playing and, along with an increasing population of new arrivals in Sydney, this led to
161-637: The Southern Rugby Football Union ( SRFU ) between 1874 and 1892, is the governing body of rugby union within most of the state of New South Wales in Australia . It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia , known as the Australian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) at the time of its founding. Within Australia it is considered the strongest Union. It has the largest player base, biggest population, most suburban clubs, and
184-587: The 1885 season. The SRU only began to involve itself in rugby for Junior teams in 1882, and only established a formal Junior competition in 1886. Some of the clubs in the original Junior competition were Petersham (who still exist in the Suburban competition today), Manly Federals, the Warrigals and Wentworth. Most of these clubs fielded one team and the competition received coverage in Sydney's newspapers under "Other matches". By 1896, in an early sign of what later led to
207-526: The 1919 season with divisions for both non-district and district clubs. The Mosman Rugby Club , as the winner of the Reserve Grade B division (effectively the first grade for non-district clubs), was presented with a cup donated by W.H. Kentwell in 1923. This began the long history of the Kentwell Cup which is now awarded to the NSWSRU first grade premiers in first division. The Burke Cup , was first presented to
230-585: The Drummoyne DRFC traces its origins to the very foundations of rugby union in Australia , with its predecessor Balmain Rugby Club formed in 1873, and winning the newly formed Southern Rugby Union 's first competition in 1875. In neighbouring Glebe, another rugby club was founded in 1889 and these two clubs formed the foundation of Drummoyne. The Glebe-Balmain Club was established in 1919 and decided to change its name to
253-539: The Drummoyne District Rugby Football Club in 1931. The club has produced many representative players, the first Rugby Union team to leave Australian shores for an overseas tour, the historic 1882 NSW team to NZ, included 3 players from the Balmain Club: M.H.Howard, R.W.Thallon and C.Hawkins. In 1909-10 Bill McKell , later to become Australia's Governor General, played on the wing for Balmain and
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#1733084961618276-617: The MRU created its own Borough competition in 1902. Several of the leading City and Suburban clubs switched to this competition but, with the start of rugby league in 1908, it did not continue. With the advent of the Great War in 1914, most rugby union clubs ceased playing altogether and rugby league had won ascendancy in New South Wales. After the war was ended, the NSWRU established one competition for
299-597: The Mosman club's second grade winning side in 1924 by James A. Burke, and is now contested by NSWSRU second grade teams in first division. The NSWRU formed a separate non-district club competition in 1929, which became the Metropolitan Sub-Districts Rugby Union in 1933. The Whiddon Cup was inaugurated in 1933 by Horace Whiddon of the Briars Club, and is now awarded to the NSWSRU third grade premiers. At
322-722: The Sydney district competition was absorbed into Subbies in 1993 and 18 clubs contested the Kentwell Cup in that year. Drummoyne , Mosman , University of NSW and Hornsby , Hawkesbury Agricultural College, Canterbury, Dundas Valley, Hawkesbury Valley are former district clubs that moved to Subbies. Most current clubs are based on a local community, links with schools, or voluntary groups. Old Ignatians , St Patricks , Barker Old Boys, Knox Rugby Club , Waverley , Kings Old Boys, and Oakhill are or were formed from ex-students of schools. The Bronte and Manly Savers clubs are composed of members of surf lifesaving clubs. Promotion and relegation
345-497: The club. The winner of the Cowboy Cup is the club across all divisions who earn the most points throughout the season. First Division Second Division Third Division Fourth Division Fifth Division – reinstated 2017 after a four season absence Sixth Division – not contested in 2023 Additional Cups For the 2023 season, clubs compete in the following divisions: Notes: A representative NSW Suburban team
368-678: The oldest running club rugby competition in the country. The New South Wales Rugby Union is the third oldest continuous rugby union ever, behind only the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU). The southern areas of New South Wales encompassing the Monaro, Far South Coast, and Southern Inland unions are not affiliated with the NSWRU. They are now within the ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union . The New South Wales Rugby Union
391-602: The schism with rugby league, tensions emerged with suggestions that Senior clubs were trying to poach players with talent at Junior clubs using ‘incentives’ and that Junior players were being paid a match fee. A new branch of the NSWRU called the Metropolitan Rugby Union (MRU) was formed in 1897 to administer the Sydney competitions and re-organise the clubs along district lines. The previous Junior clubs and players were essentially merged into new district clubs. More than twenty Junior clubs, including foundation members of
414-547: The start of club football. After 1872, rugby football clubs grew rapidly in number. Sydney rugby in the early years was played by Senior teams and Junior teams (where Junior denoted the second tier, not the age of the players). The Senior competition was run by the Southern Rugby Union (SRU, later to become the NSWRU ) and had been in existence from 1874, but matches for Junior sides were arranged on an ad hoc basis until after
437-422: The start of the war in 1939 the NSWRU decided to cancel representative games but continue with club competitions. This was an attempt to ward off a repeat of the setback caused by the cessation of rugby during the previous war. All sports were ravaged during the war. Players and officials died or were injured during battle or as prisoners of war but, as at least a restricted form of the game was continued, rugby union
460-518: The union, vanished from the books in 1898. Most clubs that were disenfranchised in the move to district football between 1897 and 1900 simply went out of existence but a few, such as Petersham, continued playing matches between themselves beyond the control of the MRU and NSWRU. In 1901 the competition was formally organised under the City and Suburban Association, making it the earliest forerunner of today's Subbies rugby. To counter this new rebel association,
483-542: Was able to be successfully revived in 1946. After the war, Subbies rugby grew strongly. In 1966 Petersham made history as being the first club to circle the world on a rugby tour. The Sydney Sub-Districts Rugby Union was established in 1971, and the Subbies competition was rearranged into three divisions. In 1990, the Subbies became known as the New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union. The second division of
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#1733084961618506-455: Was afflicted with the withdrawal of two 3rd grade teams, although a Halligan Cup team – Colleagues Convicts – stepped up into the grade. In 2012 the season was played without a 4th division competition again. The 4th Division competition was revived in 2014, but with it came the demise of the 5th Division (clubs with 2 teams). This means that clubs who were hoping to have 2 teams this year must either downsize to one team (Division 6) or hope for
529-784: Was founded in 1874 as the Southern Rugby Union , before changing to the present name in 1893. Due to the merging of Union's by the ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union , the New South Wales Rugby Union does not encompass all of New South Wales . However, it does include major cities and towns, making up roughly two-thirds (and/or more) of the state. Such cities and towns include: Newcastle , the Central Coast , Wollongong , Coffs Harbour , Port Macquarie , Tamworth , Orange , Dubbo , Bathurst , Lismore , Tweed Heads , Byron Bay , and Sydney . This rugby union article
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