Australian Rugby Shield
| Australian Rugby Shield | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sport | Rugby Union football |
| Inaugural season | 2000 |
| Ceased | 2008 |
| Number of teams | 8 |
| Country | Australia |
| Holders | NSW Country Cockatoos (2008) |
| Most titles | NSW Country Cockatoos (4 titles) |
| Broadcast partner | ABC |
| Related competition | |
The Australian Rugby Shield is a now-defunct rugby union football competition in Australia. It was launched in 2000 by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU). The competition was intended to unearth new talent outside of the existing rugby strongholds of Sydney and Brisbane. The competition was suspended after the 2008 season, and has thus far not been revived.
The tournament was an important step in the development of rugby union in Australia, and provided an opportunity for the ARU to identify and unearth talented players nationally. It provided regional teams and developing unions with a regular schedule to compete against each other at a higher level than would normally be possible within their individual states or territories.
Conducted under rules and regulations similar to the Super Rugby, the competition aimed to assist players, coaches, managers and referees in their professional development. It provided a pathway to full representative level including education in coaching, selecting and refereeing.
The Australian Rugby Shield was first contested in 2000, with six teams playing a single round robin over five weekends and the top two teams playing in the final. The teams in the inaugural season were the Adelaide Black Falcons, Darwin Mosquitoes, Melbourne Axemen, New South Wales Country Cockatoos, Perth Gold, and Queensland Country Heelers. The New South Wales and Queensland Country teams met in the final, played as the curtain-raiser to the Bledisloe Cup match held at Stadium Australia in front of a record rugby crowd of 109,874. Queensland Country won in an upset, 23-17.
New South Wales Country went on to win the next two titles, before Perth claimed their first Australian Rugby Shield in 2003. A first-past-the-post system was put in place in 2004, eliminating the requirement for a final. In 2006, two additional teams were added, the Tasmania Jack Jumpers and the ACT & Southern NSW Vikings team that won the Australian Rugby Shield on their first attempt. The competition was split into two pools in a three-week round robin competition with the winners and runners up in each pool progressing to the Semi Finals (27 May 2006) and cross-pool Final (3 June 2006). Contracted Super Rugby and academy players were excluded.
In 2007, the tournament reverted to a 6-team home-and-away round-robin tournament, without Perth and the Vikings. These two teams were excluded as the ARU determined that the local competitions were sufficient to foster talent for the new Australian Rugby Championship teams, the Perth Spirit and Canberra Vikings, respectively.
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