The New South Wales Country Cockatoos is an amateur representative

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 its m ...

football team. Players in the team are selected by the New South Wales Country Rugby Union from

regions of New South Wales In the state of New South Wales, Australia, there are many areas which are commonly known by regional names. Regions are areas that share similar characteristics. These characteristics may be natural such as the Murray River, the coastline, or the ...

excluding Sydney and Southern NSW. New South Wales Country plays regular fixtures with other representative sides including City-Country matches with New South Wales Suburban for the Maher-Ross Cup, and the "Battle of the Borders" Cup against the

Queensland Country Heelers The Queensland Country Heelers is an amateur rugby union football team that represents the regions of Queensland outside of Brisbane. The team is selected by the Queensland Country Rugby Union following the annual Queensland Country Championship ...

. The NSW Country team adopted a logo featuring a

Cockatoo A cockatoo is any of the 21 parrot species belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up the ord ...

in 1996. These native birds are common throughout regional areas of New South Wales. The team colours are orange (amber) and black.

NSW Country Under 20

The New South Wales Country Under 20 team competes in the Southern States Championship and also plays occasional matches against other representative sides. Prior to 2008, country colts teams at under 21 and under 19 age levels were fielded in national and state competitions.

History

Early Years: 1895 to 1949

The New South Wales Country team first played the Metropolitan Sydney side when the

New South Wales Rugby Union The New South Wales Rugby Union, or NSWRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within most of the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. Within Australia it is considered t ...

inaugurated the Country Week carnivals in 1895. Sydney won in the first two years by 14–11 and 23–8, but in 1897 the Country team won by 16–3. The Country Week matches continued until 1914 with just two drought-affected years missed. The onset of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914, and the growth of

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

brought rugby union to a halt in New South Wales. Rugby league took many of the ground tenures and, as the only football code played during the war, the majority of young men that left school. Although rugby union survived, the game languished in country parts of the state for many decades. Country Week matches were re-established in 1929, after a 15-year gap. New Zealand's

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

also toured in 1929, playing the NSW Country team in Armidale and winning 27–8. However, the 1930s Depression years had a debilitating effect on amateur sports including rugby, particularly in country areas with reduced prices for rural products. At the outset of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the NSWRU decided that some club rugby would be maintained. A few matches were arranged and country teams managed their own games of mostly reserve team fixtures. Schoolboy matches were played, but representative rugby was discontinued.

Expansion and tours: 1950 to 1999

Rugby union in country regions of NSW expanded in the 1950s and 1960s. The

NSW Country Rugby Union The New South Wales Country Rugby Union, or NSWCRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within most of New South Wales in Australia. The NSWCRU is affiliated with the New South Wales Rugby Union and administers game in the majori ...

was founded in 1954. The NSW Country team defeated Sydney 17–8 in 1956, and lost to the touring

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

by six points. The team drew 14–all with the Queensland Country team before playing a 16–all draw with

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

in 1964. The 1970s was a golden period. NSW Country won the

Wallaby Trophy 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 ...

in 1970. Under innovative coach Daryl Haberecht they won again in 1974 (beating Sydney, Queensland and Victoria), and again in 1975 (being undefeated). NSW Country also won matches against the

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

touring sides in 1975. The team undertook tours to New Zealand, Canada and the United States in 1974 and again in 1977, winning 13 from 15 matches and 7 from 13 matches respectively, including wins over

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

and

Counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in New Zealand. Periods of drought affected Country rugby in the early 1980s, but the NSW Country team toured New Zealand in 1980 and 1981, and United Kingdom and Europe in 1985. The Cockatoos name was adopted in 1996. The team toured to Ceylon in 1997, winning the Singer Cup when in Colombo.

Recent events: 2000 to present

The

Australian Rugby Union Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named the Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It ...

started the

Australian Rugby Shield The Australian Rugby Shield is a rugby union competition in Australia. It was launched in 2000 by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU), now Rugby Australia (RA). The competition was intended to unearth new talent outside of the existing rugby strong ...

competition in 2000, which NSW Country won four times; in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2008. After the suspension of the competition at the end of 2008, the focus of the NSW Country Cockatoos returned to annual City-Country fixtures against NSW Suburban, and the "Battle of the Borders" Cup against the

. The Cockatoos won the cup in five of the seven years to 2013. From 2019 the team participates in National Rugby Championship Division 2.

Honours

* 2019 NRC Division 2 Runner Up * Australian Rugby Shield Winners (2001, 2002, 2004, 2008)

References

External links

nswcountryrugby.com.au
{{National Rugby Championship Rugby union teams in New South Wales Rugby clubs established in 1895 1895 establishments in Australia