Sport Rugby union No. of teams 12 Most recent
champion(s) Northern Suburbs | Founded 1923 Country Australia TV partner(s) 7Two | |
The Shute Shield is a rugby union competition in Sydney, New South Wales. It is the premier grade rugby trophy in NSW rugby. The Shute Shield is awarded at the end of the Sydney Club Rugby season to the team that wins the Grand Final. The Shield is contested by the twelve SRU clubs.
Contents
History
The first Sydney club competition was in 1874, contested by Balmain, Newington College, Sydney University Football Club and The King's School. The Shute Shield is seen as the traditional successor.
The Shute Shield was struck in honour of the late Robert Elliott Stewart Shute, who died on 6 June 1922 aged 23, following a match at Manly Oval. Shute served as an infantryman in 30th Battery A.I.F. during World War One. On his return to Australia he took up his studies at the University of Sydney and joined the Sydney University rugby club as a front row forward in the first XV. The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 7 June 1922 reported:
As a result of injuries received while playing at Manly in the Rugby football match between the team which toured New Zealand and the Next 15, Robert Elliott Shute, a front row forward in the latter team, died at a private hospital at Manly yesterday morning. The accident occurred during the latter portion of the first spell of the match. Shute secured the ball and when tackled fell heavily. He was removed to a private hospital, where it was ascertained that he was suffering from cerebral hemorrhage. Without recovering consciousness he died at 6am. A former pupil of Sydney Grammar School, Shute, who was 23 years of age, was a third year student at Sydney University and he played for the University first fifteen. He served in the AIF for four years.
The University club had the shield made following his death and donated it in 1923 to the NSWRU to be used as a perpetual trophy for the Sydney first grade competition.
Teams
There are currently twelve clubs that compete for the Shute Shield.
Expansion
In previous seasons clubs from outside of the Sydney metropolitan area, such as the Illawarriors and Central Coast Waves have competed but do not continue to compete.
Competition Format
The competition format currently involves an 18-week round-robin competition which is followed by a four-week play-off series culminating in a grand final. The playoffs are contested by the top eight placed teams following the round-robin. The eight finalists are initially split into two pools comprising the top four finalists and bottom four finalists. The first week of the play-offs sees 1st play 4th, 2nd play 3rd, 5th play 8th and 6th play 7th. The lowest ranked losers are eliminated and the highest ranked winners proceed directly to week 3 of the play-offs. Week 2 sees the highest ranked losers play the lowest ranked winners for the right to proceed to week 3 and play the two highest ranked winners from week 1. The two winners from week 3 proceed to the Grand Final in week 4.
Tooheys New Cup and ARC
From 2002 through 2007 the Tooheys New Cup was run to fill the void between Grade Rugby and Super Rugby in Australia. This competition was merged into the Shute Shield to become the Tooheys New Shute Shield when an attempt at an Australian wide domestic rugby competition, the Australian Rugby Championship, was started and stopped within one season in 2007. The Shute Shield competition was then extended to a full 22 match home and away round robin competition, culminating in the Grand Final in early October. With the commencement of the National Rugby Championship in 2014, the Shute Shield season was shortened to 18 rounds with a Finals series in July and Grand Final in early August.
Similar competitions
Other premier rugby competitions in Australia:
Media coverage
From 1957 until 2014, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had broadcast the Match of the Day from the Shute Shield competition in NSW/ACT every Saturday afternoon and replayed nationally on Tuesday mornings. The ABC ended its 57-year partnership with the competition at the completion of the 2014 season, following the Australian Government's decision to cut funding to the national broadcaster.
On 17 March 2015, Sydney Rugby formally announced that the Seven Network would become the new free to air Match of the Day broadcasters of the Shute Shield in NSW, commencing on 21 March on 7TWO at 3pm between Eastern Suburbs and Gordon. The Prime Network will broadcast to regional areas of NSW.
Results and Grand Finals
In the years preceding (and including) 1931, a "Challenge Final" was played only if the runner-up side was two or less points behind the Minor Premiers on the Premiership table. Otherwise, the Minor Premiers were declared Premiers.