The Queensland Country Heelers is an amateur

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 that represents the

regions of Queensland The Regions of Queensland refer to the geographic areas of the Australian state of Queensland. Due to its large size and decentralised population, the state is often divided into regions for statistical and administrative purposes. Each region ...

outside of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

. The team is selected by the

Queensland Country Rugby Union The Queensland Country Rugby Union, or QCRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within most of the state of Queensland in Australia. It is affiliated with the Queensland Rugby Union. The Queensland Country Rugby Union administe ...

following the annual

Queensland Country Championships The Queensland Country Championships, also known as the Graincorp Country Championship, is a rugby union competition for teams from regions of Queensland outside of Brisbane. The Queensland Country Rugby Union administers the competitions at Se ...

, and plays other representative teams from around Australia.

Logo and colours

Queensland Country adopted the Heelers logo featuring an

Australian cattle dog The Australian Cattle Dog (ACD), or simply Cattle Dog, is a breed of herding dog originally developed in Australia for droving cattle over long distances across rough terrain. This breed is a medium-sized, short-coated dog that occurs in two m ...

in 2000. These working dogs, also known as "Queensland Heelers", are well known throughout regional areas of Queensland. The team colours are blue and white.

Competition

Regular fixtures include City-Country matches, where Queensland Country play against Brisbane sides, and the "Battle of the Borders" Cup against the

New South Wales Country Cockatoos The New South Wales Country Cockatoos is an amateur representative rugby union football team. Players in the team are selected by the New South Wales Country Rugby Union from regions of New South Wales excluding Sydney and Southern NSW. New Sout ...

Queensland Country Under 19

Since 2018, a Queensland Country Under 19 team competes in the national Under-19s Rugby Championship, known as the URC. In previous years, Country colts teams at under 21, under 20 and under 19 age levels were fielded in national and state competitions and in occasional matches against other representative sides.

History

The Queensland Country team first played against Brisbane when the

Queensland Rugby Union The Queensland Rugby Union, or QRU, is the Sports governing body, governing body for the sport of rugby union within the state of Queensland in Australia. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. The QRU was founded in Brisbane in ...

started the Country Week competitions in 1902. Brisbane narrowly won the first match 16–15 and Country won for the first time, in the eighth season, in 1908. Country Week carnivals became sporadic with the rise of rugby league after 1909. but the strength of Queensland's country rugby prior to 1914 was considerable. In 1912, a North Queensland team drawn from Cairns, Charters Towers, and Townsville defeated

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_ ...

's representative team by 21-3. In 1913, a Darling Downs team also secured a win, by 6–0, over the Queensland side that had won three out of four matches with

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 ...

. The start 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 ...

brought rugby union to a halt in Queensland after 1914. The QRU was re-established in 1928–29 but the game languished in country regions for many years. It was not until the 1960s, when new competitions and clubs were started in Toowoomba and Warwick, that Country rugby began to develop. Annual trials and more regular fixtures for the Queensland Country team were arranged. In 1964, Queensland Country defeated Brisbane's Sub-Districts by 25-14 and surprisingly held NSW Country to a 14–14 draw. The Queensland Country Rugby Union was founded in 1965. From the 1970s through to the 1990s, the Queensland Country team played regular City-Country matches against Brisbane sides that were generally stronger. Queensland Country was admitted to the second division of 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 the 1970s, before that competition ended. The team also put up spirited performances against touring international sides, including South Africa and England, and managed to record occasional wins over Brisbane Sub-Districts and NSW Country in the 1980s and 1990s. The Heelers name was adopted in 2000 for the start of 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, which Queensland Country won in the inaugural season, defeating Perth on full-time in a semi-final in Perth, and coming from 16–17 down against NSW Country to score in the final minutes to win the final at Sydney Stadium by 23-17. Following the suspension of the Australian Rugby Shield after nine seasons at the end of 2008, the focus of the Queensland Country Heelers returned to annual City-Country fixtures and, in particular, to the "Battle of the Borders" Cup. The Heelers won the cup in 2013 for only the second time in seven years, defeating NSW Country 21–20 in the match played as the curtain raiser for the Combined Country versus

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

tour match at Hunter Stadium in Newcastle. From 2019, the team plays on National Rugby Championship Division 2.

Current squad

The squad for the 2019 NRC II season:

Honours

* Australian Rugby Shield Winners (2000)

References

Sources

* {{National Rugby Championship Rugby union teams in Queensland Rugby clubs established in 1902 1902 establishments in Australia