Sunnybank Rugby Union Club 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 its m ...

club based in the

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 ...

suburb of Sunnybank,

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_ ...

, currently competing in the

Queensland Premier Rugby Queensland Premier Rugby is a semi professional club rugby union competition in Queensland, Australia. Nine clubs play in the competition, eight of which are from Brisbane with one club from the Gold Coast. The premiership has been contested ...

competition. It was established in 1969 and has won three premierships since it entered.

History

Sunnybank Rugby Union Club was founded in 1969 as a junior

club, in the southern Brisbane suburb of Sunnybank. As a junior club, it was founded on the principle that any boy, no matter how good or bad a rugby player he was, would get a game. And so it remains in the ranks of the junior players at Sunnybank, however the word "boy" has been changed to "child". In its first year, the club fielded an Under 8s team coached by Bill Horsley and an Under 11s side coached by Graeme Page. The club played their home games at

Sunnybank State High School Sunnybank State High School is a Queensland Government State School located in the suburb of Sunnybank, approximately 15 kilometres south of the city of Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia. The school has its predominant frontage on Turton ...

, until 1974, when the club moved to its present home ground of Biggs Field in the nearby Brisbane suburb of

Macgregor MacGregor or Macgregor may refer to: People * MacGregor (surname) * MacGregor (filmmaker), a Spanish commercial cinematographer and film director * Clan Gregor, a Scottish clan * Macgregor baronets, related individuals including a British Army Br ...

. The Sunnybank High School colours of black, green and white were adopted and the Chinese dragon adopted as the emblem of the new club. The Dragons went from strength to strength, consistently being one of the strongest clubs in the Queensland Junior Rugby Union competition. The high point of this was claiming the President's Trophy for champion junior club in 1980. In 1975, Sunnybank expanded from being solely a junior club, to being one with more senior players, with the introduction of an Under 19s side in that year. The club then proceeded to field its first Senior team in 1979, with a team playing in the Sub-Districts competition coached by former Souths Magpies prop David McNiven. The club was finally promoted to First Grade status in 1989. Sunnybank had only to wait until 1993 before it made its first appearance in a First Grade Grand Final. The game was lost to Souths, but it signalled a dramatic change in the club's fortunes. Another First Grade Grand Final berth was secured the following year, but again they went down. However, in these two years, Sunnybank produced more than its fair share of representative players, especially in the Australian Under 19s side and the Australian Under 21s side. The mid-1990s saw a drop in Sunnybank's fortunes, with a large exodus of talented players.

Coming of age

However, the new millennium brought another high in Sunnybank's story. A major coup for SBRU was the signing of England Sevens Star

Ben Gollings Ben Gollings (born 13 May 1980) is an English former rugby union player who currently works as a rugby coach for Fiji sevens team. Gollings is best known for his time with the England national rugby sevens team. He is the career leader in poi ...

. In 2005, the Sunnybank First Grade team defeated the

Gold Coast Breakers The Bond University Rugby Club is an Australian rugby union football club that competes in the Queensland Premier Rugby competition. The club is based at the Bond University campus on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast. Bond Univer ...

in the Hospital's Cup Grand Final, to claim the club's first senior top division championship. This performance was repeated in 2007, when once again the Dragons defeated the Breakers in the Premier Grade Grand Final at Ballymore, the spiritual home of Queensland Rugby. 2006 saw the opening of a new main oval and the opening of a new club house. Also the Premier grade team was knocked out in the semi-finals after losing their two props to wallaby commitments. The 2007 season got off to a steady start with wingers Liam Bibo and Karel Bos impressing as with fullback and captain John Dart, towards the end the development of young fly-half Ben Lucas and the return of QLD Reds player Digby Ioanie, Rodney Blake, Greg Holmes, Henari Veratau and Nic Berry saw the Dragons develop impressive form in the lead up to the finals, culminating in an impressive 85–19 Grand Final victory over the Gold Coast, with Ben Lucas hauling a personal tally of 35 points. The club's players were also available for selection to 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 ...

franchise

East Coast Aces Queensland Country is an Australian rugby union football team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team is one of two Queensland sides in the competition, the other being . Queensland Country is organised and managed by t ...

in 2007.

Results

Premier Rugby

Australian Club Championship

Honours

– Premiers: (3)

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

– Runners-up: (4)

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

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 ...

Australian Club Championship – Runners-up: (1)

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

International players

* ''

Paul Alo-Emile Paul Alo-Emile (born 22 December 1991) is a Samoan rugby union player. His regular playing position is prop. He plays for Stade Français Paris in the Top 14. Career Early playing Alo-Emile is of Samoan heritage, born in New Zealand he grew ...

'' (2017) * '' Greg Holmes'' (2005) * ''

Digby Ioane Digby Ioane (born 14 July 1985) is an Australian professional rugby union footballer who played for the Colorado Raptors in Major League Rugby (MLR). Ioane previously played for Panasonic Wild Knights in the Top League in Japan. He also play ...

'' (2007) * ''

Rob Simmons Robert Ruhl "Rob" Simmons (born February 11, 1943) is an American politician and retired U.S. Army colonel who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007, representing Connecticut's second congressional d ...

'' (2010) * '' Jake Schatz'' (2014) * '' Liam Gill'' (2012) * ''

Richard Kingi Richard Kingi (born 17 March 1989 in Tauranga, New Zealand) is an Australian professional Rugby union footballer. While his usual position is half back, he often plays on the wing and sometimes at fullback. Career Brought up in Te Puke near th ...

'' (2009) * '' Ben Tapuai'' (2011) * '' Henry Taefu'' (2017) * ''

David Giffin David Giffin (born 6 November 1973
Scrum.com) is a former vice-captain of the Rodney Blake Rodney Blake (born 29 April 1983) is an Australian professional rugby union footballer. He played as a prop in Super Rugby for the Queensland Reds and Melbourne Rebels, and played for Bayonne in the Top 14 in France. He is sometimes referred ...

'' (2006)

External links

Sunnybank Rugby
– Official website {{QSRU Sporting clubs in Brisbane 1969 establishments in Australia Rugby clubs established in 1969