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| Nickname(s) |
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|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1863; 161 years ago (1863) | |
| Location | Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales | |
| Ground(s) | Sydney University Football Ground (Capacity: 2,500) | |
| President | David Lyons | |
| Director of Rugby | Nick Ryan | |
| Coach(es) | Todd Louden | |
| Captain(s) | Jack McCalman, Ciaran Loh | |
| League(s) | ||
| 2024 | 7th of 12 | |
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| Official website | ||
| sydneyunirugby | ||
Team | Sports departments of the University of Sydney | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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.
Sydney Uni was a member of the inaugural Sydney club competition in 1874, along with the Balmain Rugby Union Football Club, Newington College and The King's School. The club currently competes in the Shute Shield competition and has the most senior premiership titles of all Sydney clubs.
After playing home games at the Sydney University Oval No.1 for 153 years, the club moved to the redeveloped Oval No.2 for the 2016 season. Sydney Uni Sport completed the building of a new training facility and grandstand at that ground accommodating 1,200 spectators.
Club information
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- Women's Rugby: Founded in 1994.
- Juniors: Founded in 2005 and comprises Balmain Junior Rugby Club, Canterbury Rugby and Petersham Juniors Rugby Club. These clubs include girls and boys teams.
History
Having been established in 1863, The club is officially known as "Sydney University Football Club" because it was the first club of any football code in NSW. The club also played Australian rules football in its early history, making it the first NSW club in that code as well.
The club is often referred to as "Uni", "The Students", as well as "The Birthplace of Australian Rugby" or simply "The Birthplace", marking its origins at a pioneer rugby club. The first mention of students at the University playing football came in 1865 on Illustrated Sydney News, which stated:
“A football club, the first in the colony, has recently been formed and named the Sydney Football Club.”
Nevertheless, Sydney's The Referee wrote in 1918: "We believe the first recognised rugby football club formed in Sydney was the Wallaroos, in 1870, though football was played prior to that in New South Wales and Victoria".
Honours
The Club has won 29 Shute Shield Major Premierships and has been runners-up 12 times. The Club has won 50 Premierships and has been runners-up 24 times since 1865.
- Premiership Titles since 1900 (the Shute Shield started in 1923): (33) 1901 (shared), 1904, 1919, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1937, 1939, 1945, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1961, 1962, 1968, 1970, 1972, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2022
- Australian Club Champions: (5) 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2020, 2022 (not contested), 2023
- Gregor George Cup Club Championships: (24) 1927, 1937, 1941, 1942, 1961, 1983, 1999, 2001, consecutively from 2004 to 2019 and 2022
- Jack Scott Cup: The Women's XVs team is notable in the Jack Scott Cup, winning 5 of the last 6 titles. In 2020, the Students picked up both Major and Minor Premierships after going through the regular season undefeated for the third year. The Women's team defeated Randwick 22–17 in the Grand Final.
- *2021 SEASON CANCELLED In response to COVID-19 Sydney University was leading the competition without a loss when NSW Rugby Union (NSWRU) and its affiliate unions jointly made the tough decision to cancel all winter rugby competitions in the Sydney region (and Illawarra). Seven rounds were contested by the Shute Shield teams.
International representatives
To date, 133* Sydney University players have been selected to play for Australia. The first Australian representative was Hyram Marks in 1899. The club's most famous Wallaby would probably be Nick Farr-Jones, who had a long representative career (including World Cup success as Captain in 1991). Harry Potter became Wallaby #989 and proudly joined the ranks of SUFC Wallabies as the 112th player from our club to achieve this honour. Harry also scored a try on debut at Murrayfield, Scotland on 25 November 2024.
- *N.B. Not necessarily played for the Wallabies
- Wallabies Squad Training Camp – January 2025 Angus Bell, Jake Gordon and Harry Potter
Rugby World Cup Winners
- Bob Egerton – 1991
- Nick Farr-Jones (Captain) – 1991
- Richard Harry – 1999
Women's Rugby
The Club has produced 13 Australian Female Representatives of which 11 are Wallaroos; our most recent debutant is Piper Duck (October 2022 v Scotland during the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand).
- Wallaroos Squad Tournament WXV 2 – 2024 Bridie O'Gorman
- Wallaroos Squad Pacific Four Tournament – 2024 Brianna Hoy, Faitala Moleka, Piper Duck and Bridie O'Gorman
- Wallaroos Development Squad - 2024 Britt Merlo
Super Rugby players 2025
- Angus Bell – NSW Waratahs
- Brad Amituanai - NSW Waratahs
- Daniel Botha – NSW Waratahs
- Jake Gordon – NSW Waratahs
- Tom Lambert – NSW Waratahs
- Sam Carter - Western Force
- Nick Champion de Crespigny - Western Force
- Tom Horton - Western Force
- Harry Johnson-Holmes – Western Force
- George Poolman - Western Force
- Rohan Leahy - Western Force
- Harry Potter – Western Force
- Henry Robertson – Western Force
- Tom Robertson – Western Force
Super W players 2024
- Grace Hamilton – Melbourne Rebels
- Emily Chancellor – Waratahs
- Fi Jones – Waratahs
- Sera Naiqama – Waratahs
- Adiana Talakai – Waratahs
- Bridie O'Gorman – Waratahs
- Piper Duck – Waratahs (Captain)
- Brianna Hoy – Waratahs
- Penelope Leiataua – Waratahs
- Faliki Pohiva – Waratahs
- Georgina Tuipulotu – Waratahs
- Tiarah Minns – Melbourne Rebels
- Jemima McCalman – Brumbies
# Denotes Uncapped
Notes
- It refers to the "Wallaroo Football Club", formed in 1870.
References
- ^ "Sydney University No.2 Oval and Grandstand Update". Sydney University Football Club. 8 December 2015. Archived from the original on 19 August 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- "Sydney University Football Ground". austadiums.com. Archived from the original on 13 February 2022.
- Football in Australia – Australia's Culture Portal Archived 2009-05-15 at the Wayback Machine
- Hickie, Thomas V., A Sense of Union. The History of the Sydney University Football Club, 1998, ISBN 0949853623
- First Grade records on Sydneyunirugby.com.au
- ^ Sydney University: Australia's first rugby club?] at Saints & Heathens blog
- "Sydney University". Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2007.
- Australian Town and Country Journal. Sat 8 Oct 1892, page 39 at trove.nla.gov.au
- The History of the Buildcorp Wallaroos at wallaroos.rugby
- https://www.sydneyunirugby.com.auchrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.sydneyunirugby.com.au/files/3._SUFC_Australian__RepresentativesKS.pdf.
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External links
| University of Sydney | ||
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| Faculties and University Schools |  | |
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| Related | ||
| New South Wales Rugby Union | |
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| Member of Rugby Australia | |
| Super Rugby team | New South Wales Waratahs |
| Super W team | Waratahs Women |
| NRC teams | |
| Shute Shield | |
| Regional bodies | |
| Shute Shield | |
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