The Sydney University Football Club, founded in 1863, is the oldest club now playing

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

in Australia, although this date is disputed by historian Tom Hickie who argues that it was 1865. Sydney Uni was a member of the inaugural

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

club competition in 1874, along with the Balmain Rugby Union Football Club,

Newington College Newington College is a multi-campus Independent school, independent Uniting Church in Australia, Uniting Church Single-sex education, single-sex and Mixed-sex education, co-educational Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primar ...

and The King's School. The club currently competes in the

Shute Shield The Shute Shield, currently known as the Charter Hall Shute Shield, is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team fro ...

competition and has the most senior premiership titles of all Sydney clubs. After playing home games at the

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

Oval No.1 for 153 years, the club moved to the redeveloped Oval No.2 for the 2016 season. Sydney Uni Sport completed the building of a new training facility and grandstand at that ground accommodating 1,200 spectators.

Club information

* Women's Rugby: Founded in 1994. * Juniors: Founded in 2005 and comprises Balmain Junior Rugby Club, Canterbury Rugby and Petersham Juniors Rugby Club. These clubs include girls and boys teams.

History

Having been established in 1863, The club is officially known as "Sydney University Football Club" because it was the first club of any ''

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

'' code in NSW.Sydney University: Australia's first rugby club?] at Saints & Heathens blog The club also played

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

in its early history, making it the first NSW club in that code as well. The club is often referred to as "Uni", "The Students", as well as "The Birthplace of Australian Rugby" or simply "The Birthplace", marking its origins at a pioneer rugby club. The first mention of students at the University playing ''football'' came in 1865 on ''Illustrated Sydney News'', which stated: Nevertheless, Sydney's ''The Referee'' wrote in 1918: "We believe the first recognised rugby football club formed in Sydney was the ''Wallaroos'', in 1870, though football was played prior to that in New South Wales and Victoria".

Honours

The Club has won 29 Shute Shield Major Premierships and has been runners-up 12 times. The Club has won 50 Premierships and has been runners-up 24 times since 1865. * Premiership Titles since 1900 (the

started in 1923): (33) 1901 (shared), 1904, 1919, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1937, 1939, 1945, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1961, 1962, 1968, 1970, 1972, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2022 *

Australian Club Champions The Australian Club Championship is a rugby union challenge match between the Queensland Premier Rugby, Brisbane and Shute Shield, Sydney club premiers. The fixture was played on a regular basis from 1982 to 1991 (inclusive) and again since 2007 ...

: (5) 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2020, 2022 (not contested), 2023 * Gregor George Cup Club Championships: (24) 1927, 1937, 1941, 1942, 1961, 1983, 1999, 2001, consecutively from 2004 to 2019 and 2022 * Jack Scott Cup: The Women's XVs team is notable in the Jack Scott Cup, winning 5 of the last 6 titles. In 2020, the Students picked up both Major and Minor Premierships after going through the regular season undefeated for the third year. The Women's team defeated Randwick 22–17 in the Grand Final. * *2021 SEASON CANCELLED In response to COVID-19 Sydney University was leading the competition without a loss when NSW Rugby Union (NSWRU) and its affiliate unions jointly made the tough decision to cancel all winter rugby competitions in the Sydney region (and Illawarra). Seven rounds were contested by the Shute Shield teams.

International representatives

To date, 133* Sydney University players have been selected to play for Australia. The first Australian representative was Hyram Marks in 1899. The club's most famous Wallaby would probably be

Nick Farr-Jones Nicholas Campbell Farr-Jones AM (born 18 April 1962) is a former Australian rugby union player, who played as a scrum-half. He debuted for the Australia national team during the 1984 tour of Britain and Ireland. Farr-Jones was named "Player ...

, who had a long representative career (including World Cup success as Captain in 1991). Harry Potter became Wallaby #989 and proudly joined the ranks of SUFC Wallabies as the 112th player from our club to achieve this honour. Harry also scored a try on debut at Murrayfield, Scotland on 25 November 2024. * *N.B. Not necessarily played for the Wallabies * Wallabies Squad Training Camp – January 2025 Angus Bell, Jake Gordon and Harry Potter * U20 Championship Squad – 2025 Eamon Doyle (Captain), Boston Fakafanua, Joey Fowler, Liam Grover, Joe Mangelsdorf, Beau Morrison and Hwi Sharples

Rugby World Cup Winners

* Bob Egerton – 1991 * Nick Farr-Jones (Captain) – 1991 * Richard Harry – 1999

Women's Rugby "Lionesses"

The Club has produced 13 Australian Female Representatives of which 11 are Wallaroos; our most recent debutant is Piper Duck (October 2022 v Scotland during the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand). * Wallaroos Extended Squad – 2025 Ruby Anderson, Emily Chancellor, Bridie O'Gorman and Adiana Talakai Lionesses were Joint Australian Club Champions 2025

Super Rugby players 2025

Angus Bell Angus Bell (born 4 October 2000) is an Australian rugby union player who plays for the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby. His playing position is prop. He has signed to the Waratahs squad for the 2020 season. He made his debut for the Wallabies on 7 ...

– NSW Waratahs *

Brad Amituanai Brad Amituanai is an Australian rugby union player, who plays for the . His preferred position is prop. Early career Amituanai attended Newington College in Sydney and was a late-developer to rugby, originally playing centre before converting ...

- NSW Waratahs *

Daniel Botha Daniel Botha (born 16 December 2001) is an Australian rugby union player, who plays for the . His preferred position is prop. Early career Botha attended The Scots College. He was a member of the Waratahs academy since leaving school and pla ...

– NSW Waratahs *

Ethan Dobbins Ethan Dobbins is an Australian rugby union player, who plays for the . His position is hooker. Early career Dobbins is from Queensland and attended St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace. He plays his club rugby for Wests. Professional career ...

– NSW Waratahs * Ben Grant – NSW Waratahs *

Jake Gordon Jake Gordon (born 6 July 1993) is an Australian rugby union player who plays for Super Rugby franchise New South Wales Waratahs, and the Wallabies. Early life Born in Sydney, Jake grew up in Newtown, New South Wales where he first started t ...

– NSW Waratahs * Tom Lambert – NSW Waratahs *

Matt Philip Matt Philip (born 7 March 1994) is an Australian rugby union footballer who currently plays as a lock for the . He previously played for the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby, and signed with the New South Wales Waratahs ahead ...

– NSW Waratahs *

Leafi Talataina Leafi Talataina (born 18 January 2004) is an Australian rugby union player, who plays for the . His preferred position is flanker. Early career Talataina was born in Melbourne and attended Fountain Gate Secondary College. He was a member of t ...

– NSW Waratahs * Sam Carter - Western Force * Nick Champion de Crespigny - Western Force * Tom Horton - Western Force * Harry Johnson-Holmes – Western Force * George Poolman - Western Force * Rohan Leahy - Western Force *

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

– Western Force *

Henry Robertson Henry Robertson (11 June 1816 – 22 March 1888) was a Scottish mining engineer and prolific railway builder, industrialist and Liberal Party politician. He was head of Brymbo Steelworks, Wrexham. He was co-founder of Beyer-Peacock, with C ...

– Western Force * Tom Robertson – Western Force

Super W players 2025

* Emily Chancellor – Waratahs * Siusiuosalafai Volkman -Waratahs * Brittany Merlo - Waratahs *

Ruby Anderson ''General Hospital'' is the longest running American television serial drama, airing on ABC. Created by Frank and Doris Hursley, who originally set it in a general hospital (hence the title), in an unnamed fictional city. In the 1970s, the city w ...

- Waratahs * Millie Parker - Waratahs * Adiana Talakai – Waratahs * Bridie O'Gorman – Waratahs * Piper Duck – Waratahs (Captain) * Brianna Hoy – Waratahs * Grace Freeman – Force * Sera Naiqama – Force * Lori Cramer - Reds # Denotes Uncapped

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Rugby clubs established in 1863

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

Rugby union teams in Sydney 1863 establishments in Australia University and college rugby union clubs in Australia