City New South Wales rugby league team


The Sydney Rugby League team, known as the City Rugby League team, or Combined Sydney, or Sydney Firsts, or Sydney Capitals, was a representative rugby league team consisting of players formerly of the New South Wales Rugby League competition, one of two federations in the state of New South Wales. City played annually in the City vs Country Origin competition against the representative team of New South Wales' other federation, Country Rugby League.

History

The New South Wales City team first competed against New South Wales Country on 10 June 1911 which City won 29-8. The first time the match was made an annual event began in 1928 with NSW Country defeating City 35-34. The first City V Country origin match occurred on May 16, 1987 with City running out winners 30-22.
In 2016, it was announced by the NRL that the City V Country fixture was to be scrapped beyond the 2017 season. The reasons behind the decision were to clubs pulling their players out of the match and others cited player drain as a reason for the fixture to be culled. There was also a sentiment that the fixture had gone from being a genuine audition match for a potential New South Wales origin jersey to being a regular game as most of the New South Wales side had already been picked prior to the match starting.
On May 14, 2017, the final City v Country fixture was played with NSW City defeating Country 20-8.
Overall, New South Wales City were much more successful than New South Wales Country winning a total of 68 games in the annual fixture as opposed to Country's 22 wins with City winning each year from 1976 to 1991.

Location

Any players whose junior football was played for a club within the greater area of Sydney city is deemed eligible to play for the City RL. Meanwhile, anyone from outside the Sydney area can be considered for selection for Country RL Team.

Kit suppliers and sponsors

2017 final City vs Country Match

Squad

Match Details

2017 Women's City vs Country Match

The Women's City vs Country Origin is the Women's rugby league version of the game and has been running since 2017.

Squad

Match Details