New South Wales rugby league team

New South Wales

Badge of New South Wales team
Nickname	The Blues
Governing body	New South Wales Rugby League
Head coach	Laurie Daley
Captain	Paul Gallen
Most caps	Brad Fittler (31)
Top try-scorer	Michael O'Connor (11)
Top point-scorer	Michael O'Connor (129)
Home stadium	ANZ Stadium (84,000)
Colours
First game
New South Wales 8–12 New Zealand (Royal Agricultural Society Ground, Sydney; 1907)
First State of Origin game
Queensland 20–10 New South Wales (Lang Park, Brisbane; 8 July 1980)
Biggest win
New South Wales 56-16 Queensland (Stadium Australia, Sydney; 26 June 2000)
Biggest defeat
Queensland 52-6 New South Wales (Suncorp Stadium; 8 July 2015)

The New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Also known as the Blues due to their sky blue jerseys, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against neighbouring team, the Queensland rugby league team. This annual event is a series of three games competing for the State of Origin shield. In 2013, 2014 and 2015 the Blues were captained by Paul Gallen and coached by Laurie Daley.

Prior to 1980 when the "state-of-origin" selection criteria were introduced, the New South Wales team, in addition to playing annually against Queensland, played matches against foreign touring sides and occasionally toured overseas themselves. They have played all their home matches at Stadium Australia, New South Wales' largest stadium, since it was built in 1999.

History

Pre-Origin era (1907–1980)

The inaugural 'All Blues' squad of 1907.

File:StateLibQld 1 135567 New South Wales Rugby League team, first to come north, 1910.jpg

The first New South Wales team to go to Queensland in 1910.

The New South Wales rugby league team pre-dates the Australian national team, playing their inaugural match against a rebel New Zealand rugby team on the 1907–08 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain under existing rugby union rules. That inaugural "All Blues" side, the first football team assembled by the newly formed NSWRFL was:

Backs: Charles Hedley · Johnno Stuntz · Ed Fry · Dally Messenger · Frank Cheadle · Albert Rosenfeld · Lou D'Alpuget
Forwards: Harry Hamill · Arthur Hennessy · Bob Mable · Peter Moir · Sid Pearce · Billy Cann · Robert Graves · Herb Brackenreg

Two further matches were played against New Zealand before their tour took them to the Northern Hemisphere, with Jim Devereaux also featuring for the Blues. The visiting All Golds won all three games. However, on the return leg of their tour, almost a year later, with the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership established, the Blues won the first two matches they ever played under 13-a-side rules against New Zealand. Later in 1908 the Queensland team, whose first taste of rugby league football was also against the visiting Kiwis, traveled to Sydney for the first games between the two states. New South Wales won all three matches, setting a precedent for interstate dominance that would continue throughout most of the 20th century.

In 1910 New South Wales defeated the touring England team in two of their three games. After that they became the first Blues side to travel to Queensland for the annual interstate series.

In 1912 the New South Wales team first toured New Zealand. They also visited New Zealand in 1913. During the 1913 New Zealand rugby league tour of Australia New South Wales played four matches against the Kiwis, winning three of them.

The New South Wales team lost its first game against Queensland in 1922. This year the Blues also toured New Zealand.

During the 1951 French rugby league tour of Australia and New Zealand New South Wales played one match against the successful France national rugby league team, a 14-all draw.

In a 1954 tour match between Great Britain and New South Wales the referee left the field in disgust at the players' persistent fighting after 56 minutes so the match was abandoned.

State of Origin era (1980 – present)

New South Wales' dominance over Queensland came to an end with the introduction of 'state of origin' selection rules in the early 1980s.

During the Super League war, in 1997 New South Wales was represented by two teams: one made up of players from clubs that remained loyal to the Australian Rugby League, which competed in the 1997 State of Origin series; another made up of players from clubs that joined the rebel Super League which competed in the one-off Super League Tri-series.

Ricky Stuart, who had previously coached New South Wales in 2005, was announced as the first full-time Blues coach in November 2010. Following the 2012 series, the Blues' seventh consecutive loss, Stuart resigned the role. Stuart took a role as the Parramatta Eels head coach in 2013, citing family reasons for his move. Although the Blues continued their losing streak during Stuart's tenure, he is credited with restoring passion and pride to the NSW jersey and closing the gap between the two states. He was replaced by former Canberra, NSW and Australia teammate Laurie Daley. Daley's appointment as NSW State of Origin coach was announced in August 2012 and effective from season 2013. Daley got job over candidates including Trent Barrett, Brad Fittler and Daniel Anderson. Daley coached the Blues to a series victory in 2014, their first since 2005 and over his coaching rival and long time Canberra & Australian team mate Mal Meninga. Daley ended Meninga's and Queensland's run of eight series wins with victories in Game I and Game II of the 2014 series

Colours and badge

The primary club colour of New South Wales Blues is sky blue, which represents the state colour of New South Wales. The secondary club colour is navy blue, with additional contrasting colour of white.

Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

Period	Kit manufacturer	Major Sponsor	Minor Sponsor	Shorts Sponsor
1980-1990	Classic Sportswear	No minor sponsor	No shorts sponsor
1991-1996	Classic Sportswear	Tooheys Blue	Tooheys Blue	Tooheys Blue
1997	Canterbury	Tooheys	Tooheys	Tooheys
1998-2004	Canterbury	Wizard Home Loans	Wizard Home Loans	Wizard Home Loans
2005-2007	Canterbury	PlayStation 2	Wizard Home Loans
2008	Canterbury	Wizard Home Loans	nib
2009-2010	Classic Sportswear	Aussie Home Loans	nib	Aussie Home Loans
2011–	Classic Sportswear	Victoria Bitter	nib	GIO

Supporters

The official New South Wales rugby league team supporter group is known as "Blatchy's Blues".

Players

For the list of New South Wales Blues cap numbers, see List of New South Wales rugby league team players.

For the list of New South Wales Blues squads by year, see List of New South Wales rugby league team squads.

Most recent squad

Position	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3
Fullback	File:St. George Illawarra colours.svg Josh Dugan
Wing	Daniel Tupou	Brett Morris
Centre	Josh Morris
Centre	Michael Jennings
Wing	Will Hopoate
Five-eighth	Mitchell Pearce
Halfback	Trent Hodkinson
Prop	Aaron Woods
Hooker	Robbie Farah (c)	Robbie Farah
Prop	File:North Queensland colours.svg James Tamou
Second row	Beau Scott
Second row	Ryan Hoffman
Lock	Josh Jackson	Paul Gallen (c)1
Interchange	File:St. George Illawarra colours.svg Trent Merrin
Interchange	Boyd Cordner
Interchange	David Klemmer
Interchange	Andrew Fifita	Josh Jackson
Coach	Laurie Daley
18th Man	File:St. George Illawarra colours.svg Tyson Frizell	Tariq Sims
19th Man	Ryan James	Dylan Walker
20th Man	Matt Moylan

1 - Gallen retained the captaincy role from Farah in Game II.

Team of the Century (1908–2007)

Before Game I of the 2008 State of Origin series, to celebrate the game's centenary that year, New South Wales named their team of the century:

No. Position Player FB Clive Churchill WG Ken Irvine CE Reg Gasnier CE Graeme Langlands WG Dally Messenger FE Bob Fulton HB Andrew Johns PR Frank Burge HK Sandy Pearce

No. Position Player PR Glenn Lazarus SR Ron Coote SR Norm Provan LK John Raper RE Wally Prigg RE Dave Brown RE Steve Rogers RE Roy Bull

Origin greats

As part of the 25-year celebrations in 2005, New South Wales named 25 legends for each year before that.

No. Position Player FB Tim Brasher SR Noel Cleal LK Bradley Clyde FE Laurie Daley HK Ben Elias CE Andrew Ettingshausen FE Brad Fittler WG Eric Grothe PR Paul Harragon FB Garry Jack HB Andrew Johns FE Brett Kenny

No. Position Player PR Glenn Lazarus CE Paul McGregor HB Steve Mortimer WG Michael O'Connor LK Wayne Pearce LK Ray Price PR Steve Roach PR Ian Roberts SR Paul Sironen HB Peter Sterling HB Ricky Stuart HB Geoff Toovey WG Rod Wishart

Captains

Player	Occasions	Game(s) as Captain
Tommy Raudonikis	1	1980
Steve Rogers	1	1981
Max Krilich	5	1982, Games 1 & 3 1983
Ray Price	3	Game 2 1983, Games 1 & 2 1984
Steve Mortimer	3	Game 3 1984, Games 1 & 2 1985
Wayne Pearce	10	Game 3 1985, 1986–1988
Peter Sterling	1	Game 4 1987
Gavin Miller	3	1989
Ben Elias	6	1990, 1991
Laurie Daley	10	1992, 1993, 1998, Game 3 1999
Brad Fittler	17	1994–1996, Games 1 & 2 1999, 2000, 2001
Geoff Toovey	3	1997
Andrew Johns	6	2002, 2003
Danny Buderus	15	2004–2008
Kurt Gidley	5	2009, Game 1 & 2 2010
Trent Barrett	1	Game 3 2010
Paul Gallen	8	2011, 2012, Game 1 & 2 2013, 2014
Robbie Farah	2	Game 3 2013, Game 1 2015

Coaches

New South Wales have had a total of thirteen different coaches at State of Origin level, eight of which have previously played for the Blues.

Coach	Era	Games	Wins	Success %
Ted Glossop	1980–1981, 1983	5	1	20%
Frank Stanton	1982, 1984	6	2	33%
Terry Fearnley	1985	3	2	66%
Ron Willey	1986–1987	7	5	71%
John Peard	1988	3	0	0%
Jack Gibson	1989–1990	6	2	33%
Tim Sheens	1991	3	1	33%
Phil Gould	1992–1996; 2002–2004	24	14	58%
Tommy Raudonikis	1997–1998	6	3	50%
Wayne Pearce	1999–2001	9	5	56%
Ricky Stuart	2005; 2011–2012	9	4	44%
Graham Murray	2006–2007	6	2	33%
Craig Bellamy	2008–2010	9	2	22%
Laurie Daley	2013–present	9	4	44%

Selectors

The current New South Wales State of Origin side's selection panel consists of Bob Fulton, Bob McCarthy and Geoff Gerard. During the Blues five series loss from 2006 to 2010 they came in for criticism. The selectors have come under increasing amounts of criticism as NSW also lost the series in 2011, 2012 and 2013 making it a record 8 series losses in a row for the Blues.

Records

Main article: New South Wales rugby league team records

New South Wales Residents rugby league team

Main article: New South Wales Residents rugby league team

New South Wales Women's rugby league team

Main article: New South Wales Women's rugby league team

Notes

a. ^ Young switched places with Ennis to play in the starting side after being initially selected for the bench.

External links

• New South Wales rugby league team on Twitter
• New South Wales rugby league team on Facebook