Founded | 2007 |
---|---|
Location | Perth, Australia |
Ground(s) |
UWA Rugby Park
(Capacity: 4,000)
|
Coach(es) | Dwayne Nestor |
Captain(s) | Heath Tessmann |
League(s) | National Rugby Championship |
2016 | Champions |
Union website | |
www |
The Perth Spirit is an Australian rugby union football team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team is organised and managed by RugbyWA and is based in Perth, Western Australia. The high performance programs utilised by the Western Force in Super Rugby are extended to players joining the Spirit from the Force, the Perth Premier Grade competition and local rugby academy programs.
The Perth Spirit team in the NRC takes its identity from the team of the same name that played in the previous national competition, the Australian Rugby Championship (ARC). The ARC was discontinued following the first season in 2007, but after an absence of six years the national competition was relaunched as the NRC in 2014.
The Perth Spirit's colours are black and gold, the traditional colours of Western Australia. The 2014 jersey also has a splash of blue under the collar which symbolises the pathway to the Western Force team. The team's logo features a stylised black swan, similar to that of the Western Force although on a gold background instead of the Force's blue. The black swan is the state emblem and state bird of Western Australia.
In 2006, after setting up a consultative process culminating in a working session of some 70 delegates from around the country, the Australian Rugby Union announced that a new, eight-team national competition would commence in 2007 to compete for the Australian Rugby Championship (ARC).
With the announcement of a new national rugby union competition, it was known that one of the foundation clubs would be located in Perth - with three teams in New South Wales, two in Queensland and one each in Canberra and Melbourne making up the inaugural eight.