National Rugby Championship
| National Rugby Championship (NRC) | |
|---|---|
Upcoming season: 2017 National Rugby Championship
|
|
 |
|
| Sport | Rugby union |
| Inaugural season | 2014 |
| Number of teams | 9 |
| Country | Australia |
| Champions | Perth Spirit (2016) |
| Most titles | Brisbane City (2 titles) |
| Website | buildcorpnrc.com |
| Broadcast partner | Fox Sports |
| Related competition | |
The National Rugby Championship, known as the NRC, is Australia's national professional rugby union football competition. The NRC is administered by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU), and as of the upcoming 2017 season is contested by eight teams from around Australia plus one from Fiji. The NRC is the highest tier of competition below the transnational Super Rugby tournament, which also involves New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Japan. The National Rugby Championship is the most important club competition for players in Australia following the Super Rugby season.
The National Rugby Championship spans eleven weeks from late August, after the completion of the premier club rugby competitions in each state, to early November. A round-robin tournament is played over nine rounds where each team plays each other once. Each team has four home matches and four away matches with one bye. This is followed by the finals rounds consisting of two semi-final matches, contested by the top four teams, and a grand final match to determine the season's champion team.
During the round-robin section of the tournament, teams can also play for the Horan-Little Shield, a challenge trophy that is played for when a challenge is accepted or offered by the holders.
Buildcorp has the naming rights for the NRC competition. Other partners include Intercontinental Hotels, Qantas, and Allianz, with the Allianz group logo appearing on referees' jerseys through to end of 2016.ASICS are the official apparel supplier and Gilbert is the official supplier of all rugby balls.
The tournament is run by the Australian Rugby Union with the sponsorship of Foxtel which provides television coverage on its Fox Sports channels.
Two of the NRC matches each weekend are broadcast live via Fox Sports. Discussion of the NRC competition is included on Fox Sports' Monday night review show NRC Extra Time on Fox Sports HD 2, and the Rugby 360 program on Wednesday evenings.
...
Wikipedia