This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2019) |
Nickname(s) |
| |
---|---|---|
Founded | 1863 | |
Location | Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales | |
Ground(s) | Sydney University Football Ground[1] (Capacity: 2,500[2]) | |
President | David Lyons | |
Director of Rugby | Nick Ryan | |
Coach(es) | Todd Louden | |
Captain(s) | Jack McCalman, Ciaran Loh | |
League(s) | ||
2024 | 7th of 12 | |
| ||
Official website | ||
sydneyunirugby |
Sports departments of the University of Sydney | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The Sydney University Football Club, founded in 1863, is the oldest club now playing rugby union in Australia,[3] although this date is disputed by historian Tom Hickie who argues that it was 1865.[4]
Sydney Uni was a member of the inaugural Sydney club competition in 1874,[citation needed] along with the Balmain Rugby Union Football Club, Newington College and The King's School. The club currently competes in the Shute Shield competition and has the most senior premiership titles of all Sydney clubs.[citation needed]
After playing home games at the Sydney University 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.[1]
Having been established in 1863,[5] The club is officially known as "Sydney University Football Club" because it was the first club of any football code in NSW.[6] The club also played Australian rules football in its early history, making it the first NSW club in that code as well.[7]
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.[6] The first mention of students at the University playing football came in 1865 on Illustrated Sydney News, which stated:
“A football club, the first in the colony, has recently been formed and named the Sydney Football Club.”[6]
Nevertheless, Sydney's The Referee wrote in 1918: "We believe the first recognised rugby football club formed in Sydney was the Wallaroos, in 1870,[n 1] though football was played prior to that in New South Wales and Victoria".[6]
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.
To date, 132 Sydney University players have been selected to play for Australia.[10] The first Australian representative was Hyram Marks in 1899. The club's most famous Wallaby would probably be Nick Farr-Jones, who had a long representative career (including World Cup success as Captain in 1991). Our most recent Wallaby is Josh Kemeny who debuted against Argentina in Sydney on 15 July 2023.
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).
# Denotes Uncapped
{{cite web}}
: Check |url=
value (help); Missing or empty |title=
(help)