Curtis Rona for Sydney Rays v Canberra Vikings 2018

Sydney is an Australian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

team that competes in the

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

(NRC). Formerly known as Sydney Rays, the team is one of two sides from New South Wales in the competition; the other being the NSW Country Eagles. The current team plays as the all-of-Sydney side in the NRC and wears the traditional blue and yellow colours of Sydney's representative rugby teams. It draws on the metropolitan sides that have represented the city for more than a century. In 2019 the NRC side adopted as its logo the anchor insignia of the Sydney Rugby Union, which dates back to at least 1970. The team was known as the North Harbour Rays before 2016. It was renamed Sydney during a consolidation which reduced the number of NRC teams in the city from three in 2014 to eventually just one by 2018. The North Harbour Rays had been formed as consortium of four Sydney clubs;

Gordon Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

, Manly, Northern Suburbs, and Warringah in 2014. North Harbour took its identity from the Central Coast Rays side that played in the earlier national competition, the

Australian Rugby Championship The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...

(ARC) in 2007. It had been backed by the same four Sydney clubs, along with the

Central Coast Waves The Central Coast Waves is a rugby union team based on the Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia. The Waves played in the Shute Shield pre-season competition in 2006, based out of the Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium. The blue and yellow colours were adopted in 2018, and are the colours featured on the City of Sydney coat of arms. For the ARC in 2007, the Central Coast Rays played in a predominantly green and blue jersey. From 2014 to 2017, the North Harbour Rays team wore harlequin-style quartered strips in the various colours of its four constituent clubs.

History

In 2007, an attempt was made to form a third tier of rugby in Australia, similar to New Zealand's ITM Cup and South Africa's

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

. The newly formed competition included eight teams and was called the

. Three of those teams were based in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, including a Central Coast team.

Central Coast: ARC

The Central Coast Rays team was officially launched in March 2007 by the New South Wales Rugby Union (NSWRU). The Rays' emerald and navy colours represented the ocean and bush landscape of the region. The team logo featured a manta ray in navy blue, outlined in white, on a stylised emerald green and white rugby ball. The Rays' local rivals in the ARC were the Sydney Fleet and the Western Sydney Rams. The three ARC teams from New South Wales were aligned with existing clubs and regions. The clubs aligned with the Central Coast Rays were

, Manly, Northern Suburbs, and Warringah, from the

Shute Shield The 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 from the Sydney premiership grand final held at the end ...

competition, as well as the

Central Coast Waves The Central Coast Waves is a rugby union team based on the Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia. The Waves played in the Shute Shield pre-season competition in 2006, based out of the Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium.Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium Central Coast Stadium (known originally as Grahame Park), known commercially as Industree Group Stadium is a sports venue in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. The stadium is home to the Central Coast Mariners asso ...

Gosford Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extr ...

, on the New South Wales Central Coast. Bluetongue Stadium, with an all-seater capacity of 20,159, had previously hosted numerous rugby union fixtures including

Australian Provincial Championship The Australian Provincial Championship, or APC, is a now-defunct rugby union football competition played in Australia. It was one of several provincial competitions since the late 1960s, including the Wallaby Trophy and Ricoh National Champion ...

John McKee was the head coach of the Central Coast team. He had previously coached the Eastwood club and worked with French club Montferrand and Irish team

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Del ...

. After finishing second on the league table, the Central Coast Rays came from behind against the

Perth Spirit Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is p ...

in their semi-final, winning 27 to 19. The Rays hosted the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...

in the inaugural ARC Grand Final and won 20 to 12, becoming the inaugural (and only) champions of the ARC. The Australian Rugby Championship was terminated at the end of 2007 after only one season of competition, with the Australian Rugby Union citing higher costs than budgeted and further projected financial losses. The Central Coast Rays team was disbanded at the end of the ARC.

North Harbour

The

was announced in December 2013 to commence in 2014 with expressions of interest open to any interested parties and the accepted bids decided early in 2014. In March 2014 it was announced that the Rays would be revived as the North Harbour Rays to compete in the new National Rugby Championship. The new Rays team was backed by a consortium of the same four

clubs involved in earlier Central Coast Rays team: Manly, Warringah, Northern Suburbs and

. The team played in a quartered harlequin-style strip composed of blue, red, and two shades of green from the four constituent clubs. The sleeves were gold and black, collar and shorts were white and all four clubs’ colours were featured on the socks. The Rays secured Macquarie University as their principal partner on a two-year deal, to be officially be known as the Macquarie University North Harbour Rays for the 2014 and 2015 NRC seasons.

Phil Blake Phil Blake (born 24 November 1963) is a former rugby league footballer and a professional rugby union coach. Originally a , Blake developed into a utility player and played first grade matches in all the backline positions, as well as at and ...

was initially appointed as the Rays head coach for the

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

season, with Scott Fava,

Haig Sare Haig Sare (born 25 March 1982) is a former Australian rugby union player. He played as centre or winger for the Western Force in the Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australi ...

and

Geoff Townsend Geoff Townsend (born 1964) is an Australian professional rugby union football coach. He is currently head coach of Sydney club Gordon RFC, and he was appointed as head coach of the North Harbour Rays for the inaugural season of Australia's Na ...

as part of the coaching staff, but after Blake accepted a coaching opportunity with Leicester Tigers, Geoff Townsend was promoted to the head coaching position, Damien Cummins replaced Fava as the forwards coach in 2014, and Greg Peterson was named as captain. In 2015, Townsend was reappointed as head coach, and

Luke Holmes Luke Holmes (born 14 November 1983 in Mona Vale, Australia) is a rugby union footballer. His regular playing position is hooker. He represented the Rebels in the 2012 Super Rugby season having formerly played for the Western Force. He has be ...

was named as captain.

Sydney

The team was renamed the Sydney Rays for the

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

season. Southern Districts considered switching allegiance to the Rays in 2016, but remained with the Rams. Damien Cummins was initially named as head coach in 2016 but he stepped down and Simon Cron was appointed to the job. The Rays performed well that year and lost only once in the regular season – to eventual minor premiers NSW Country – before being knocked out in a semi-final by the

, who went on to win the NRC title. Two

wooden spoon Wooden Spoon may refer to: * Wooden spoon, implement * Wooden spoon (award) A wooden spoon is an award that is given to an individual or team that has come last in a competition. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous e ...

seasons followed in 2017 and 2018 under, respectively, Julian Huxley and Chris Whitaker. The Rays' moniker and logo were dropped in 2019, a year after New South Wales Rugby had taken control of the Sydney team. Whitaker was reappointed head coach and Sydney adopted the traditional masoned crown and anchor insignia of the Sydney Rugby Union for the NRC team's logo, although the anchor had been used on the plaquet of the collar and in promotional material the year before. The Sydney Fleet ARC team had a similar crest in 2007.

Home grounds

, Sydney play their home matches at Woollahra Oval No.1. The team has its training base at the

University of NSW The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...

in Sydney's eastern suburbs, the same facility used by the Waratahs. From 2014 to 2017, the team played at several venues north of the harbour including Macquarie University and

Brookvale Oval Brookvale Oval (also known by the commercial sponsorship name 4 Pines Park) is a sporting ground located within Brookvale Park at Brookvale, New South Wales, Australia. The ground is owned by Northern Beaches Council and is primarily used by th ...

, as well as the home grounds of three of the four clubs from the Ray's ownership consortium at the time: Northern Suburbs, Manly and Warringah (i.e. at

North Sydney Oval North Sydney Oval is a multi-use sporting facility in North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, owned and operated by North Sydney Council. First used as a cricket ground in 1867, it is also used for Australian rules football, rugby league, rug ...

, Manly Oval and Pittwater Park, respectively). In 2018, the Sydney Rays played south of the harbour at

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

Leichhardt Leichhardt may refer to: * Division of Leichhardt, electoral District for the Australian House of Representatives * Leichhardt Highway, a highway of Queensland, Australia * Leichhardt Way, an Australian road route * Leichhardt, New South Wales, inn ...

and Woollahra. For the ARC in 2007, the Rays played at

Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium Central Coast Stadium (known originally as Grahame Park), known commercially as Industree Group Stadium is a sports venue in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. The stadium is home to the Central Coast Mariners asso ...

Supporters

With the reemergence of the competition in the form of the NRC, fans from Manly and Warringah rugby heartland - tragic supporters of the game - formed the 'STRAYS'. In the spirit of rugby and the NRC they came together to make sure the new club had support in the local community and to 'enrich the sideline experience'. Its members were drawn to the common cause by the founder, Michael Gordon.

Current squad

The squad for the 2019 NRC season:

Records

Honours

**Playoff appearances:

**Champions: 2007

Season standings

National Rugby Championship : Australian Rugby Championship :

Head coaches

* Chris Whitaker (2018–present) * Julian Huxley (2017) * Simon Cron (2016) *

(2014–15) * John McKee (2007)

Captains

Lalakai Foketi Lalakai Foketi (born 22 December 1994) is an Australian rugby union player who currently plays as a centre for the in Super Rugby. Career Foketi first came to prominence in 2013 with some impressive displays while playing for the Manly Marl ...

(2019) * Damien Fitzpatrick (2017–2018) *

Matt Lucas Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series ''Little Britain'' (2003–2006, 2020) and '' Come Fl ...

(2016) *

(2015) * Greg Peterson (2014) *

Cameron Treloar Cameron Treloar is an Australian rugby union player, formerly for Union Bordeaux Bègles in the Top 14. Career Cameron Treloar began his career with the New South Wales Waratahs in the Super 14 competition in 2005 before moving to the Queensla ...

(2007)

Squads

: : : :

Gallery

File:Brisbane City versus North Harbour Rays NRC Round 8 (1).jpg, North Harbour Rays scrum under the Scoreboard File:Brisbane City versus North Harbour Rays NRC Round 8 (2).jpg, North Harbour Rays warm up pre Round 8 game File:Brisbane City versus North Harbour Rays NRC Round 8 (3).jpg, North Harbour Rays scrum under the Grandstand File:Brisbane City versus North Harbour Rays NRC Round 8 (4).jpg, North Harbour Rays post match huddle

References

External links

* * {{Central Coast Sports Teams National Rugby Championship Sport on the Central Coast (New South Wales) Rugby clubs established in 2007 2007 establishments in Australia Rugby union teams in New South Wales Sports team relocations Rugby union teams in Sydney Northern Beaches Rugby union clubs disestablished in 2020 2020 disestablishments in Australia