Arena/Stadium Central Coast Stadium Captain Paddy Ryan | Coach Darren Coleman Founded 2014 | |
Region NSW Regions, excl. Sydney & Southern NSW Ground(s) Endeavour Oval
(Orange)
Magpies Rugby Park
(Tamworth)
University Oval No. 2
(Sydney) League National Rugby Championship | ||
The New South Wales Country Eagles is an Australian rugby union football team competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team was founded by a group of patrons associated with country rugby in New South Wales. The Eagles team plays home matches in regional centres of New South Wales, including Orange, and Tamworth.
Contents
- Name and colours
- Sponsorship
- History
- Grounds
- Notes
- Current squad
- Honours
- Season standings
- Head coaches
- Captains
- References
Name and colours
The Country Eagles' name derives from the wedge-tailed eagle, a large bird of prey found across all areas of Australia. Golden hackles highlight the eagle's predominantly black feathers and these have been adopted as the team's colours. The team's logo features a wedge-tailed eagle. The logo and mascot, “Wedgie”, were chosen in consultation with the NSW Country Rugby Union to differentiate the team from the existing Cockatoos representative side. The Eagles, however, still wear the traditional black and gold (amber) colours of NSW Country.
Sponsorship
The major naming sponsor of the Country Eagles for the 2014 and 2015 seasons was Charles Sturt University (CSU).
History
The ARU announced in December 2013 that the National Rugby Championship (NRC) would commence in 2014. Expressions of interest were open to all parties, with the accepted bids announced in early 2014. A group of rugby patrons headed by businessmen Rick Hutchinson and Peter Tonkin founded the bid for a New South Wales Country team. On 24 March 2014, it was announced that New South Wales Country would be in the new competition.
Originally it was thought the Country team for the NRC would be wholly composed of city-based players of country origin, but a goal of recruiting between four and eight players that were country-based was announced. Sydney clubs Easts and Randwick also have a direct link as feeder clubs for the NSW Country team in the NRC. The Sydney University club took a 25% stake of the team ahead of the 2016 season and provided many of the Eagles players from that season onwards.
General manager of the NSW Country Eagles in 2014, former Wallabies player James Grant, indicated that the team would be based in Sydney but would travel to regional centres in New South Wales to play home games. Cities including Orange, Dubbo, Mudgee, Lismore, Tamworth, Moree, Armidale and Newcastle expressed an interest in staging country matches.
Darren Coleman was appointed as the first head coach of NSW Country team. Coleman had previously guided Japanese team Toyota Shokki to Top League promotion for the 2013–14 season. He was also the assistant coach of the Central Coast Rays team which won the ARC in 2007. Matthew Carraro was named as captain of the Eagles' team for the opening match of the 2014 season.
Coleman continued as head coach for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Grounds
The Country Eagles team schedules home games in regional centres of New South Wales and slso as Sydney. The team played home matches at the following locations for the 2016 season:
Other home match locations used in previous seasons:
Notes
^a The venue for the 2016 Round 5 fixture between NSW Country Eagles and Perth Spirit was moved from Orange due to heavy rains causing Endeavour Oval to become waterlogged. The match was relocated to Concord Oval in Sydney.
Current squad
The squad for the 2016 National Rugby Championship season:
(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped, 1 denotes allocated national player additional to the contracted squad.
Honours
Season standings
National Rugby Championship