New South Wales Country Eagles

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This article is about the National Rugby Championship team. For the amateur representative team, see New South Wales Country Cockatoos.
New South Wales Country Eagles
220px
Charles Sturt University NSW Country
Founded 2014
Region NSW Regions, excl. Sydney & Southern NSW
Ground(s) Ann Ashwood Park
No. 2 Sports Ground
Chillingworth Oval
Woollahra Oval
Coach(es) Darren Coleman
Captain(s) Jono Lance
League(s) National Rugby Championship
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
nswcountryeagles.com

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 Bathurst, Newcastle, and Tamworth.[1]

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Name and colours

The NSW 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.[2] The team's logo has a wedge-tailed eagle, regardant, with wings displayed and holding a rugby ball. 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.[1]

Sponsorship

The major naming sponsor of the New South Wales Country Eagles is Charles Sturt University (CSU), under a two-year partnership agreed with the team for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.[3]

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.[4] A group of rugby patrons headed by businessmen Rick Hutchinson and Peter Tonkin founded the bid for a New South Wales Country team.[5][6] On 24 March 2014, it was announced that New South Wales Country would be in the new competition.[7]

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.[7] Sydney clubs Easts and Randwick also have a direct link as feeder clubs for the NSW Country team in the NRC.[7]

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.[8][9] He was also the assistant coach of the Central Coast Rays team which won the ARC in 2007.[10] Matthew Carraro was named as captain of the Eagles' team for the opening match of the 2014 season.[11]

General manager of the NSW Country Eagles, former Wallabies player James Grant, indicated that the team would be based out of Sydney’s Moore Park, but would travel to regional centres in New South Wales to play all home games. Cities including Orange, Dubbo, Mudgee, Lismore, Tamworth, Moree, Armidale and Newcastle expressed an interest in staging country matches.[6]

Grounds

NSW Country Eagles home venues for the 2015 National Rugby Championship

The New South Wales Country team plays home games in regional centres of the state.[1] The team has scheduled home matches at the following locations for the 2015 season:

City   Venue   Capacity
Bathurst Ann Ashwood Park 3,000
Newcastle No. 2 Sports Ground 5,000
Tamworth Chillingworth Oval 3,000
Sydney Woollahra Oval 5,000

Other home match locations used in previous seasons:[12]

City   Venue   Capacity
Dubbo Caltex Park[13] 12,000
Gosford Central Coast Stadium 20,059
Orange Wade Park[14] 8,000
Lismore Oakes Oval[15] 10,000
Sydney Coogee Oval[16] 5,000

Current squad

The squad for the 2015 National Rugby Championship season:[17][18]

Props

Hookers

Locks

  

Loose Forwards

Scrum-halves

Fly-halves

  

Centres

Wingers

Fullbacks

(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped, 1 denotes allocated national player additional to the contracted squad.

Development squad

The NSW Country Eagles also announced a development squad for the 2014 season.[19]

Records

Honours

Season standings

National Rugby Championship

Year Pos Pld W D L F A +/- BP Pts   Play-offs  
2015 5th 8 4 0 4 225 260 −35 3 19   Did not compete
2014 2nd 8 6 0 2 251 202 +49 3 27   Semi-final loss to Brisbane City by 26–32.

Head coaches

Captains

Squads

Gallery

  • NSW Country Eagles vs Greater Sydney Rams NRC Round 1 (4).jpg

    NSW Country Eagles Round 1

  • NSW Country Eagles vs Greater Sydney Rams NRC Round 1 (5).jpg

    NSW Country Eagles Coogee Oval

  • NSW Country Eagles vs Greater Sydney Rams NRC Round 1 (1).jpg

    NSW Country Eagles Coogee Oval

  • NSW Country Eagles vs Greater Sydney Rams NRC Round 1 (2).jpg

    NSW Country Eagles Coogee Oval


See also

References

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  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Qantas Wallabies player alignments unveiled for 2014 Buildcorp National Rugby Championship

External links

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