The Greater Sydney Rams, originally known as the Western Sydney Rams, is a former

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 from Australia that was disbanded in 2018. The Rams won the minor premiership in the 2007

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), and then competed in the National Rugby Championship (NRC) from 2014 to 2017. The Greater Sydney Rams team in the NRC took its identity from the Rams side that was founded in 2007. Australia's national competition was discontinued following the first season in 2007 but, after an absence of six years, the ARC was relaunched as the NRC in 2014. The revived Rams team for 2014 was backed by a syndicate of private investors in partnership with four Sydney rugby clubs;

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

, Penrith, Southern Districts and West Harbour. The

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station ** Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the P ...

club was initially included in the partnership but withdrew prior to the 2014 season. In 2017 the Rams were taken over by the Eastwood Rugby Union Club, for what was to be their last season in the competition. A restructure for the 2018 season removed the Rams from the NRC, leaving only two sides from New South Wales in the competition; the Rays and the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...

Name and colours

The inspiration for the name Rams derived from the pioneering past of Western Sydney; and as recognition of the settlers that started the Australian sheep and wool industries in Parramatta. The original orange and blue colours of the Rams were unveiled at the ARC team's launch in March 2007. White was added to the collar of the jersey and base of the sleeves in 2014, and a predominantly white and blue kit with orange highlights was introduced when Eastwood took ownership of the team for the 2017 season.

History

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

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Global School, an English medium co-educational day school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Tek ...

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 premi ...

. The new competition, called the

, included eight teams. 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 Western Sydney team based at Parramatta.

ARC: Western Sydney Rams 2007

The clubs aligned with the Western Sydney Rams in 2007 were

, West Harbour,

and Penrith. All competed in the

Tooheys New Cup {{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019 The Tooheys New Cup, or TNC, was a rugby union competition established by the New South Wales Rugby Union (NSWRU) in 2002. Played in the second half of the rugby season after the Super 12 competition was complete ...

and Shute Shield club competitions. The Rams' local rivals in the ARC were the

Sydney Fleet The Sydney Stars is a former Australian rugby union football team that competed in the National Rugby Championship (NRC) in 2014 and 2015. The Stars team was established as a joint venture between the Sydney University and Balmain rugby clubs, ...

and the

Central Coast Rays Sydney is an Australian rugby union team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (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. T ...

. The three ARC teams from New South Wales were aligned with existing clubs and regions.

Brian Melrose Brian "Billy" Melrose (born 9 May 1963) is an Australian professional rugby union coach and former player who played as a fly-half and inside centre. He was head coach of the Greater Sydney Rams for the inaugural season of Australia's National Ru ...

was the head coach of the Rams in 2007. Melrose had coaching roles with Manly and the Australian Sevens team and was previously an assistant coach to the Waratahs. He played for Parramatta, West Harbour and Eastwood before taking up coaching. The Western Sydney Rams played at

Parramatta Stadium Parramatta Stadium was a sports stadium in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, 23 kilometres west of Sydney's central business district. The stadium was the home ground of several western Sydney-based sports teams, at the time of closure ...

, which then had an all-seater capacity of 20,000. The Rams were the minor premiers of the 2007 ARC season. The team was knocked out of the 2007 finals by 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 20 ...

at the semi-final stage. 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 Western Sydney Rams team was disbanded with the end of the ARC competition.

Greater Sydney Rams 2014–2015

The National Rugby Championship was announced in December 2013 to commence in 2014 with expressions of interest open to any interested parties with accepted bids to be announced early 2014. In March 2014 it was announced that the Rams would be revived as the Greater Sydney Rams to compete in the new National Rugby Championship, and the team's original colours from the ARC would be maintained. The new Rams team, representing Greater Sydney, was formed by Greater Sydney Rams Pty Ltd – a syndicate of private investors in partnership with (initially) five Shute Shield clubs:

, Penrith, Southern Districts, and West Harbour. In late June 2014, Eastwood withdrew financial backing from the Rams, and ended their formal association with the team. The Rams' shareholdings were split, with three quarters being held by the syndicate of investors and the remainder held by the clubs (5% being kept aside for Eastwood should they wish to become a partner). A law firm, People + Culture Strategies (PCS), was announced as the Rams' naming rights partner for the 2014 to 2016 seasons. The Rams appointed

as head coach for the 2014 season, renewing their association with the coach that took the Western Sydney Rams to the minor premiership in 2007. For the first NRC match of 2014 the Rams named 21-year-old Jed Holloway, from the Southern Districts club, as captain of the team. In 2015, former Wallaby assistant coach Jim Williams was appointed Rams coach.

Western Sydney Rams: 2016

The franchise reverted to its original name of Western Sydney Rams for the 2016 NRC season. Consideration was given to the Southern Districts Rugby Club switching to the newly renamed

Sydney Rays Sydney is an Australian rugby union team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (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. T ...

, but the club decided to remain a shareholder of the Rams. Former Australian assistant coach John Muggleton was named as the Rams' new head coach for the 2016 season, with Jeremy Paul and Joel Wilson appointed as assistant coaches. The team played their home matches out of

Concord Oval Concord Oval (also Waratah Stadium), is a rugby football stadium in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Concord, Australia. The stadium is able to hold 5,000 people as of November 2022, down from 20,000 when the Concord Oval was opened in 1985. , ...

but only won two matches for the year, finishing the regular season in sixth place and did not make the semifinal stage of the competition.

Greater Sydney Rams: 2017

The Rams franchise underwent a restructure in 2017, reverting to the Greater Sydney Rams name again when Eastwood Rugby Club took over control of the licence. The team's home ground was moved to TG Millner Field. Before the start of the 2018 season, an announcement from NSW Rugby on 6 June 2018 stated that only two teams from New South Wales would be included in the NRC for that year. Reverting to one team each from the city and country meant that the Rams were removed from the competition.

Sponsorship

The Rams naming rights sponsor in 2014 was the workplace relations law firm, People + Culture Strategies (PCS). Other partners in the 2014 season included financial advice firm Evalesco Financial Services, owned by Jeff Thurecht and Marshall Brentnall, ARC Group, owned by Cameron Ryan and Pacific Restaurants, chaired by businessman Rick Hutchinson, and the

University of Western Sydney Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network ...

. In the 2015 and 2016 seasons the RAMS were sponsored by People + Culture Strategies, ARC Group, Evalesco Financial Services and The Digital Athlete. In the 2017 season the RAMS were sponsored by People + Culture Strategies and major international property investment company Brookfield

Stadium

The Rams initially played at

in 2014, home of the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

club, the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

, and

A-league A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

team

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

. The site was originally known as Cumberland Oval and rugby union was played there from 1879 through to 1939. The old wooden grandstand was burnt down in the early 1980s and Cumberland Oval was redeveloped into Parramatta Stadium which opened in 1986. In 2015, the Rams consortium clubs of

and Southern Districts also hosted home matches. In 2016, the Rams played out of Concord Oval, which hosted eight matches during the

1987 Rugby World Cup The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. It was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia – New Zealand hosted 21 matches (17 pool stage matches, two quarter-finals, the third-place play-off and the final) while Australia hosted 11 ...

, including a semifinal. The Rams played all their home games for 2017 at

TG Millner Field TG Millner Field is in the North West Sydney suburb of Marsfield, New South Wales, Australia, and is currently the home ground of Eastwood Rugby Club, a rugby union Club that competes in the Shute Shield competition. History In 1954, Vimiera Recre ...

, the home ground of Eastwood Rugby Club in the Shute Shield competition.

Records

Honours

* Playoff appearances:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

(ARC)

Season standings

National Rugby Championship : Australian Rugby Championship :

Head coaches

* John Manenti (2017) * John Muggleton (2016) * Jim Williams (2015) *

(2007, 2014)

Captains

* Jed Holloway (2017) * Paul Asquith (2016) * Jed Holloway (2014–15) *

Lachie Turner Lachlan 'Lachie' David Turner (born 11 May 1987) is an Australian professional rugby union player who retired at the end of 2018 season. In his usual position of wing. He has a strong kicking game, which allows him to also play at fullback. ...

(2007)

Squads

: : : : :

Gallery

File:Tatafu Polota-Nau (L) joins Greater Sydney Rams Fans.jpg, Tatafu Polota-Nau with Greater Sydney 'Horned Army' Fans File:Greater Sydney Rams versus Melbourne Rising Round 8 National Rugby Championship (2).jpg, Rams win a lineout against Melbourne File:Greater Sydney Rams versus Melbourne Rising Round 8 National Rugby Championship (3).jpg, Rams backline in action for Round 8 File:Greater Sydney Rams versus Melbourne Rising Round 8 National Rugby Championship (5).jpg, Rams forwards in action against Melbourne

References

External links

Greater Sydney Rams
on facebook.com
Greater Sydney Rams
on twitter.com