National Rugby Championship

The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian national rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams — seven from Australia and one from Fiji.

National Rugby Championship (NRC)
SportRugby union
Inaugural season2014
Ceased2019
Number of teams8
CountryAustralia (7 teams)
Fiji (1 team)
ChampionsWestern Force (2019)
Most titlesBrisbane City (2 titles)
Websiterugby.com.au/competitions/nrc
Related competition

Format

The National Rugby Championship was usually held in the period between late August and early November. A round-robin tournament was scheduled first where each team plays all others once. The top four teams progress to the championship playoffs consisting of two semi-final knockout matches and a grand final to determine the champion team and winner of the NRC Trophy.

NRC winner's trophy, nicknamed 'The Toast Rack'.

During the round-robin section of the tournament, teams can also play for the Horan-Little Shield, a challenge trophy that is put on the line by the holders when a challenge match is accepted or mandated according to the Shield rules.

Teams

The National Rugby Championship had eight teams competing in its final season - 2019 season:

Teams in the 2018 National Rugby Championship  (Fijian Drua not shown on map).
NRC Competition Launch in 2014 with Buildcorp MD Tony Sukkar and players from all teams.
Team  Licencees / associated teams Region
Brisbane City Queensland Rugby Union / Reds  Queensland
Canberra Vikings ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union
/ Brumbies, Tuggeranong Vikings		  Australian Capital Territory
Fijian Drua Fiji Rugby Union  Fiji
NSW Country NSW Country Rugby Union / Waratahs  New South Wales
Melbourne Rising Victorian Rugby Union / Rebels  Victoria
Queensland Country Queensland Rugby Union / Reds  Queensland
Sydney New South Wales Rugby Union / Waratahs  New South Wales
Western Force RugbyWA / Force  Western Australia

Television coverage and streaming

Two of the NRC matches each weekend are broadcast live via Fox Sports, with the remaining matches shown on the Fox Sports streaming platform.[1] Discussion of the NRC competition is included on Fox Sports' review show NRC Extra Time on Monday nights, and the Kick & Chase program on Tuesday evenings.

History
Buildcorp NRC logo used 2014–2016.

In December 2013, the ARU announced that Australia would get another tier of competition under Super Rugby in line with South Africa’s Currie Cup and New Zealand's Mitre 10 Cup (then known as ITM Cup). Eleven bids were tendered from teams wanting to participate in the tournament, with nine being accepted.[2] Applicants that were not successful were advised that they could bid again as the competition matured, as early as 2015.[3]

The National Rugby Championship followed a previous national competition, the Australian Rugby Championship, that was abandoned after the first season in 2007 due to financial losses.[4][5]

The construction company Buildcorp was the inaugural naming rights sponsor for the NRC competition,[6] with other partners including Intercontinental Hotels, Qantas, and Allianz also signed.[7] ASICS was the official apparel supplier for the first two seasons. Matches were played under approved law variations,[8] intended to increase the speed of the game.[9]

A new broadcasting deal agreed in 2015 secured the funding and future of the competition until the end of the 2020 season.[10] The competition was reduced from nine teams to eight when the ARU did not renew the NRC licence for the Sydney Stars in 2016, citing insufficient player talent to support four competitive teams in New South Wales.[11]

A team from Fiji, the Fijian Drua, joined the competition for the 2017 season.[12] For the 2018 season, the Greater Sydney Rams were dropped from the competition, leaving Sydney with just one team, the Rays.[13]

Sponsorship

The tournament is run by Rugby Australia with the sponsorship of Foxtel which provides television coverage on its Fox Sports channels.[14] Gilbert is the official supplier of all rugby balls.[6]

Player selection

Australia's Super Rugby players participate in the NRC under a capped allocation to ensure that all NRC teams have a mix of players from local development squads and club competitions, as well as those with Super Rugby experience. Australian national team players are required for Test match rugby during the NRC season, but each player is allocated to one of the NRC teams and is able to play if released from national duty.

Champions
Season Premiers Score Runners-up Referee(s) Venue Attendance Date
National Rugby Championship
2014 Brisbane City 37–26 Perth Spirit R. Hoffmann Ballymore Stadium 7,889 1 November 2014
2015 Brisbane City 21–10 Canberra Vikings A. Lees Ballymore Stadium 4,327 31 October 2015
2016 Perth Spirit 20–16 NSW Country Eagles N. Berry Scully Park 2,000 22 October 2016
2017 Queensland Country 42–28 Canberra Vikings W. Houston Viking Park 4,000 11 November 2017
2018 Fijian Drua 36–26 Queensland Country N. Berry Churchill Park 6,000 27 October 2018
2019 Western Force 41–3 Canberra Vikings D. Murphy UWA Rugby Park 6,500 26 October 2019
2020 Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

Team Performance
Team Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
Brisbane City 2 0 2014, 2015 –
Perth Spirit 1 1 2016 2014
Queensland Country 1 1 2017 2018
Fijian Drua 1 0 2018 –
Western Force 1 0 2019 –
Canberra Vikings 0 3 – 2015, 2017, 2019
NSW Country Eagles 0 1 – 2016

Minor Premiers/Wooden Spoon
Season Minor Premier Wooden Spoon
National Rugby Championship
2014 Melbourne Rising Sydney Stars
2015 Brisbane City Greater Sydney Rams
2016 NSW Country Eagles Queensland Country
2017 Canberra Vikings Melbourne Rising
2018 Fijian Drua Sydney Rays
2019 Western Force Sydney (2)
2020

Team Performance
Team Minor Premiers Wooden Spoon Years Minor Premier Years Wooden Spoon
Brisbane City 1 0 2015 –
NSW Country Eagles 1 0 2016 –
Canberra Vikings 1 0 2017 –
Fijian Drua 1 0 2018 –
Western Force 1 0 2019 –
Melbourne Rising 1 1 2014 2017
Sydney Stars 0 1 – 2014
Greater Sydney Rams 0 1 – 2015
Queensland Country 0 1 – 2016
Sydney 0 2 – 2018, 2019

NRC Division 2

An Emerging States Championship was formed in 2018 for representative teams from smaller rugby unions within Australia.[15] There had been no regular competition for these teams since the demise of Australian Rugby Shield a decade earlier. The new tournament was hosted by Rugby Union South Australia in Adelaide and featured the South Australia Black Falcons, Victoria Country Barbarians, Northern Territory Mosquitoes and Tasmania Jack Jumpers. The Black Falcons were the inaugural winners.[16] The tournament was rebranded as NRC Division 2 for 2019, with eight representative teams invited:[17]

Year Teams Champion Runner-up Third Fourth
2018 4  South Australia  Tasmania  Northern Territory  Victoria Country
2019 7  Perth Gold  New South Wales Country  Queensland Country  South Australia
2020 Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

See also

References
  1. "Historic 2017 NRC draw released as Fiji enters the fray". Australian Rugby (Press release). 21 July 2017. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  2. "ARU Board approves nine team National Rugby Championship to start in August 2014". rugby.com.au (Press release). 24 March 2014. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  3. "SA Rugby misses out on an NRC Team". sarugby.com.au. 24 March 2014. Archived from the original on 25 October 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  4. "Australia relaunches National Rugby Championship". rugbyweek.com. 24 March 2014. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  5. "NRC update part 1: Queensland, Perth, Melbourne and Canberra". The Roar. 8 July 2014. Archived from the original on 8 July 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  6. "Buildcorp announced as National Rugby Championship naming rights partner". Australian Rugby. 16 July 2014. Archived from the original on 16 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  7. "ARU partners with Allianz for new National Rugby Championship". Australian Rugby. 20 August 2014. Archived from the original on 24 August 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  8. "Law variation". Australian Rugby Union. Archived from the original on 13 August 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  9. McKay, Brett (13 August 2015). "Law variations to continue in NRC Season 2". The Roar. Archived from the original on 12 August 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  10. Payten, Iain (4 March 2015). "New broadcasting deal ensures future of National Rugby Championship until at least 2020". The Courier Mail. News. Archived from the original on 9 March 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  11. "Sydney Stars victims of National Rugby Championship consolidation". The Daily Telegraph. 11 February 2016. Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  12. "FRU Reveals Fiji NRC Official Name and Kit" (Press release). Fiji Rugby Union. 16 August 2017. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  13. NSW to field two NRC teams in 2018 - Beth Newman, Rugby.com.au, 6 June 2018
  14. McKay, Brett (15 July 2014). "NRC update part 3: All systems go for launch". The Roar. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  15. "South Australia claim Emerging States Championship". Rugby Australia. 24 September 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  16. Jack Hislop (26 September 2018). "The NT's representative rugby team has finished second at the Emerging States Championships". Northern Territory News. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  17. https://sa.rugby/news/2019/09/05/nrcii-tournament

Archives

Team webpages
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