Northern Suburbs Rugby Club
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| Union | New South Wales Rugby Union |
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| Founded | 1900 |
| Location | Sydney, Australia |
| Region | Lower North Shore |
| Ground(s) | North Sydney Oval (Capacity: 20,000) |
| Coach(es) | Simon Cron |
| Captain(s) | Mike O'Hea |
| League(s) | Shute Shield |
| Official website | |
| www |
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Northern Suburbs Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club in Sydney, Australia, that was formed in 1900 from the merger of the Pirates and Wallaroos clubs. The club competes in the Shute Shield and Tooheys New Cup competitions run by the New South Wales Rugby Union. The club has produced 42 Wallaby representatives. The club's home ground is the historic North Sydney Oval on the North Shore of Sydney. The ground has been a venue for both codes of rugby and for cricket over more than a century.
Rugby on the lower North Shore is over 130 years old. Council minutes reveal that the North Shore Football Club played on a paddock adjoining Holterman's Tower, the present location of Shore School.
The club later transferred to St Leonard's Park and became known as the Pirates, a team which won the First Grade Premiership in 1898 and the R.A.S. Trophy in 1897/8/9, defeating the neighbouring Wallaroos 10-nil in the third final.
The Pirates and Wallaroos combined in 1900 to form North Sydney. It was the first district club to affiliate with the metropolitan Rugby Union in the initial eight-club district competition. The date was 5 April, ahead of Wests on 11 April and Easts on 12 April. Jim Henderson, commemorated in the present premiership trophies for third and fourth grades, was North's first secretary, and the club's first cap was winger Charlie White, who played in the first-ever test-match in 1899 against the British Isles and then in the first Australia v New Zealand test in 1903.
The club did not win any premierships prior to the 1914–18 war, but before competitions were suspended, its name was changed to Northern Suburbs. However, for reasons today unknown, the new name was not implemented until the 1928 season. Under the guidance of one-eyed (lost in action in France) Fred Aarons, Norths played a leading role in the resurgence of rugby in Sydney during the 1920s. The reserve grade won the club's first premiership in 1925 and, in 1929, Norths won the initial Club Championship.
The year 1928 saw a young recruit arrive, one Gavin John Andrews, who is now enshrined as the club's greatest treasure, Bon Andrews, after whom North Sydney No. 2 Oval is named.
The first of North's two 'golden eras' occurred in the early 1930s. The club's initial first-grade premiership was in 1933, beating Manly 8-6, and again beating Manly in 1935 by 22-5. A member of the 1933 team, Jim Young, recently attended the club's tribute to our World Cup representatives, and was presented with a photo of his old team.
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