National Rugby Championship

Updated on Nov 18, 2023

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Sport Rugby union Broadcast partner Fox Sports Number of teams 9		Website buildcorpnrc.com Founded 2014 Current champion Perth Spirit

Most titles Brisbane City (2 titles) Related competition Horan-Little Shield Dewar Shield John I Dent Cup SARU Premier Grade Queensland Premier Rugby RugbyWA Premier Grade Shute Shield Digicel Cup Inaugural season 2014 National Rugby Championship Teams Brisbane City, Perth Spirit, Sydney Rays, New South Wales Country E, Western Sydney Rams Profiles Twitter

The National Rugby Championship, known as the NRC, is Australia's national professional rugby union football competition. The NRC is administered by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU), and as of the upcoming 2017 season is contested by eight teams from around Australia plus one from Fiji. The NRC is the highest tier of competition below the transnational Super Rugby tournament, which also involves New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Japan. The National Rugby Championship is the most important club competition for players in Australia following the Super Rugby season.

Format

The National Rugby Championship spans eleven weeks from late August, after the completion of the premier club rugby competitions in each state, to early November. A round-robin tournament is played over nine rounds where each team plays each other once. Each team has four home matches and four away matches with one bye. This is followed by the finals rounds consisting of two semi-final matches, contested by the top four teams, and a grand final match to determine the season's champion team.

During the round-robin section of the tournament, teams can also play for the Horan-Little Shield, a challenge trophy that is played for when a challenge is accepted or offered by the holders.

Sponsorship

Buildcorp has the naming rights for the NRC competition. Other partners include Intercontinental Hotels, Qantas, and Allianz, with the Allianz group logo appearing on referees' jerseys through to end of 2016. ASICS are the official apparel supplier and Gilbert is the official supplier of all rugby balls.

The tournament is run by the Australian Rugby Union with the sponsorship of Foxtel which provides television coverage on its Fox Sports channels.

Live TV coverage and streaming

Two of the NRC matches each weekend are broadcast live via Fox Sports. Discussion of the NRC competition is included on Fox Sports' Monday night review show NRC Extra Time on Fox Sports HD 2, and the Rugby 360 program on Wednesday evenings.

Background

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. Applicants that were not successfult were advised that they could bid again as the competition matured, as early as 2015.

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

A new broadcasting deal agreed in 2015, secured the funding and future of the competition until the 2020 season.

Teams

The teams competing in the NRC are the following:

Notes:

Team 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.