Sydney Stars

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Sydney Stars
Sydney Stars logo.png
Founded 2014
Location Sydney, Australia
Ground(s) Leichhardt Oval
(Capacity: 22,000)
Coach(es) Chris Malone
Captain(s) Pat McCutcheon
League(s) National Rugby Championship
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
sydneystarsrugby.com.au

The Sydney Stars is an Australian rugby union football team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The Stars team was formed as a joint venture between the Sydney University and Balmain rugby clubs, and is one of four New South Wales teams in the competition.[1]

The NRC was launched in 2014, reinstating the national competition after an absence of six years.[2] Sydney University was initially interested in entering the NRC competition as a stand-alone club,[3] but submitted a joint bid with Balmain as the Sydney Stars.[4]

[edit]

The Sydney Stars' colours of gold, blue and black are drawn from the rugby clubs of Sydney University and Balmain.[5] The team logo is the name "Sydney" in blue capitals outlined in white above the name "Stars" in gold capitals outlined in blue, and with the central letter "A" formed as the top point of a stylised five-pointed star, also in gold and outlined in blue. The entire design is outlined in black.[5]

History[edit]

The previous national competition was the Australian Rugby Championship (ARC), which was discontinued in 2007 after only one season. After setting up a consultative process in 2006 which culminated in a working session of some 70 delegates from around the country, the Australian Rugby Union announced that a new eight-team national competition would commence in 2007.[6] New South Wales was allocated three teams and it was decided that representative teams would be formed to play out of the Central Coast, Western Sydney, and Sydney.[7] The decision was controversial because two New South Wales clubs, Sydney University and Randwick, had wanted to enter stand-alone teams in the new competition.[8][9]

Sydney Fleet (ARC team)[edit]

Sydney Fleet logo.
Sydney Fleet colours (2007)

The Sydney Fleet was formed as one of three New South Wales teams to participate in the ARC. The Fleet's colors were blue and gold, the same colours used by past teams representing all of Sydney.[10] The team's local rivals were the Western Sydney Rams and Central Coast Rays.

The logo of the Sydney Fleet featured a traditional anchor, similar to that on the Coat of arms of Sydney. The name, logo and team colours were revealed at the official launch of the team held aboard the museum ship HMAS Vampire at the Australian National Maritime Museum, in Darling Harbour on 27 February 2007.[10]

Existing clubs aligned with the Sydney Fleet included Sydney University, Randwick, Eastern Suburbs and Southern Districts.[11] The team played at North Sydney Oval which was also the home ground of the Northern Suburbs Rugby Club, although that club was aligned with the Central Coast Rays team for the ARC competition.[12]

Head coach of the Sydney Fleet was Col "Snake" Jeffs, who was also the NSW Country head coach at the time. Former Wallaby and Waratah Scott Bowen (Easts head coach) and former Waratah and Italy Test lock Mark Giacheri (Randwick head coach) were the assistant coaches.[13] Tim Davidson was the captain.[14]

The Australian Rugby Championship was terminated at the end of 2007 after only one season of competition, with the Australian Rugby Union citing higher costs than budgeted and further projected financial losses.[15] The Sydney Fleet team was disbanded with the end of the ARC competition.

Year Pos Pld W D L F A +/- BP Pts   Play-offs
2007 5th 8 4 0 4 212 244 −32 4 20   Did not compete

National Rugby Championship[edit]

In December 2013, the ARU announced that the national competition was to be relaunched, with the National Rugby Championship (NRC) commencing in 2014.[16] Expressions of interest were open to any interested parties, with the accepted bids finalised in early 2014.[17] The Sydney University initially expressed interest in entering the NRC competition as a stand-alone club.[3] However, a joint venture between Sydney University and Balmain rugby club (run by Sydney businessman Warren Livingstone, founder of the sports-tourism group Fanatics) was successful.[4][18] On 24 March 2014 it was announced that the Sydney Stars team would play in the NRC competition.[19][20]

Sydney University's coach Chris Malone was named as the head coach of the Sydney Stars, with Cameron Blades as forwards coach and Peter Playford as backs coach. Jack Farrar and Matt Dunning were appointed as support personnel.[1] Pat McCutcheon was named as captain.[21]

Stadium[edit]

The home ground for the Sydney Stars is Leichhardt Oval,[1] the long-term home of rugby league team, the Balmain Tigers. The ground has primarily hosted rugby league and association football teams over the years, and is still the main home ground for the Wests Tigers rugby league team playing in the NRL competition.[22]

Current squad[edit]

The squad for the 2014 National Rugby Championship season:[23][24]

 

Props

Hookers

Locks

  • Australia Jordan Chapman
  • Australia Byron Hodge
  • New Zealand Loma Kaveinga
  • Australia Mathew Philip
  • Australia Will Skelton1
  • New Zealand Ryan Wilson
  

Loose Forwards

  • Australia Hugo Dessens
  • Australia David Hickey
  • Tonga Tipiloma Kaveinga
  • Australia Pat McCutcheon (c)
  • Australia Benn Melrose
  • Australia Samuel Quinn
  • Australia Mitchell Whiteley

Scrum-halves

Fly-halves

  

Centres

Wingers

  • Australia Peter Betham
  • Australia Henry Clunies-Ross
  • Australia James Dargaville
  • New Zealand Matthew Kenny
  • Australia Jim Stewart
  • Australia Jonny Loseli

Fullbacks

(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped, 1 denotes allocated national player additional to the contracted squad.

Records[edit]

Season standings[edit]

National Rugby Championship

Year Pos Pld W D L F A +/- BP Pts   Play-offs  
2014 9th 8 1 1 6 211 356 −145 1 7   Did not compete

Head coaches[edit]

Captains[edit]

Squads[edit]

Gallery[edit]

  • Sydney Stars exit the field post Round 5

  • Sydney Stars feed the scrum

  • Sydney Stars scrum down

  • Sydney Stars tackled

  • Sydney Stars under pressure

  • Sydney Stars feed the scrum

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "NRC update part 2: NSW Country and the Sydney teams". The Roar. 9 July 2014. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2014. 
  2. ^ "Australia relaunches National Rugby Championship". rugbyweek.com. 24 March 2014. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  3. ^ a b Payten, Iain (11 December 2013). "ARU invites fans on social media to suggest law changes for new National Rugby Championship". The Courier Mail. News. Archived from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  4. ^ a b Harris, Bret (24 March 2014). "ARU announces national club competition". The Australian. News. Archived from the original on 25 Mar 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  5. ^ a b Livingston, Warren (19 May 2014). "Sponsor the Sydney Stars". Sydney stars. Archived from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  6. ^ "2006 Annual Report: Rugby services". Australian Rugby Union. 31 May 2006. p. 47. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2014. 
  7. ^ "NSW unveils three team structure for national comp". ESPN Scrum. 6 September 2006. Archived from the original on 13 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  8. ^ Sygall, David (28 May 2006). "Our rich club heritage under threat". Sydney morning Herald. Archived from the original on 4 July 2014. 
  9. ^ Kimber, Ben (27 May 2006). "Sydney clubs seek stand-alone status". Sydney morning Herald. Archived from the original on 4 July 2014. 
  10. ^ a b "Sydney Fleet Ready to Launch ARC Campaign". waratahs.com.au. 27 February 2007. Archived from the original on 2 May 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2007. 
  11. ^ "Australian Rugby Championship". New South Wales Rugby. 2007. Archived from the original on 7 October 2007. 
  12. ^ "North Sydney Oval". austadiums.com. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2007. 
  13. ^ "Jeffs, Bowen & Giacheri, Sydney’s dream team". waratahs.com.au. 15 January 2007. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2007. 
  14. ^ Hill, Craig (3 August 2007). "The ARC NSW Teams: The Sydney Fleet". rucksandrolls.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. 
  15. ^ "ARU pull plug on Australian Rugby Championship". ESPN Scrum. 18 December 2007. Archived from the original on 12 July 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014. 
  16. ^ Orme, Steve (10 December 2013). "ARU unveils new national rugby championship for 2014". Sportal. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2014. 
  17. ^ "National Rugby Championship 2014: Expresions of Interest" (PDF 6.2 MB). Australian Rugby. 11 December 2013. Archived from the original on 16 February 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  18. ^ Payten, Iain (13 February 2014). "Balmain and Sydney University align for NRC bid and hope to sign Benji Marshall". The Daily Telegraph. News. Retrieved 21 May 2014. 
  19. ^ "Australian Rugby Union says National Rugby Championship to start in August". ABC. 24 March 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2014. 
  20. ^ Horne, Ben (24 March 2014). "Bill Pulver says National Rugby Championship will make money". Archived from the original on 24 March 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2014. 
  21. ^ "Sydney Stars announce skipper". Sydney Stars Rugby. 29 July 2014. Archived from the original on 30 July 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014. 
  22. ^ "Leichhardt Oval". austadiums.com. Archived from the original on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  23. ^ "Sydney Stars announce extended squad for Buildcorp NRC". 1 August 2014. Archived from the original on 1 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014. 
  24. ^ Qantas Wallabies player alignments unveiled for 2014 Buildcorp National Rugby Championship

External links[edit]
Teams
Seasons
Super Rugby team
NRC teams
Shute Shield
Regional bodies
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