The NRC was first started in 2007 with the Central Coast Rays taking out the trophy.
The tournament provided a quality competition that aimed to perform the role the ITM Cup does in New Zealand. Notable young players to come out of the tournament include Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Pat McCabe, Ben Mowen, Quade Cooper and of course Kurtley Beale who was the player of the tournament.
It was full of promise but stopped after just one season due to financial issues.
It was then brought back in 2014 as the rebranded National Rugby Championship. The tournament is meant to provide quality game time for Super Rugby players not in the Wallaby squad while also giving non-super rugby contracted players a chance to get their name out there.
While the goal is a good one, it has not been a huge success. The set up and constant rule changes through the years have led to a largely ordinary tournament with some state rugby bodies obviously taking it more seriously than others.
Rule changes through the tournament existence have included eight-point tries, timers on scrums and kicks as well as a new bonus point system.
This were all introduced to promote continuity and attacking rugby to bring crowds in. Unfortunately, the focus on attack has left little room for defense.
Games have been try-scoring frenzies with 60-80 points regularly being racked up. This is fun for a while but can become a little frustrating after a while. The constant rule changes have also left the tournament with a feeling of an experiment.
The next issue is the setup of the tournament. In 2014 there was nine teams (one ACT, four NSW, two QLD, one ACT and one WA) but some of the teams (namely the Sydney Stars) were horrible leading to a re-shuffle with this year’s tournament comprising of eight teams (one ACT, one NSW, one QLD, one ACT, one WA and one Fiji).
The tournament has also experienced problems with the splitting of Super Rugby players, especially in NSW. The NSW teams have not got strong links to the Shute Shield as they did in 2007 and this had led some teams getting all the stars and some receiving none.
This was highlighted in the 2016 season when the Western Sydney Rams had one contracted Waratahs player (Will Skelton) while the Country Eagles had 10.
These discrepancies have worked to further discredit the competition while also driving fans away. Why would anyone turn up to watch their local team get smashed by a team full of Waratahs?
Queensland Country players celebrate victory (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
Finally, it seems that some states take the competition more seriously than others. This is shown in the winners of the tournament.
Queensland teams have won the tournament three times and the Perth team has won it once. The Canberra Vikings have been runners up twice while out of the four NSW teams that have experienced stints in the league, runner up is the best they could do with the Country Eagles in the 2016 season.
This lack of seriousness in NSW is being shown again this year. The NRC starts this weekend, on the same weekend of the Shute Shield grand final.
This poor scheduling means that the best players in the NSW club scene (many of them super rugby players) will either not play in the first round or turn up tired and sore.
Every other state has finished their club rugby comp two weeks prior to the NRC starting allowing at least a fortnight for teams to prepare (still not enough but better than nothing). This again works to discredit the competition.
In conclusion, this tournament has a lot of potential to provide a tournament similar to that of the ITM Cup (NZ) or Currie Cup (SA).
It is also something that Australian Rugby needs to work as it can bridge the significant gap from club rugby to super rugby. But unfortunately, is has not quite worked so far due to several issues.
Having said this, improvements have been made and the move to two NSW teams should make them very strong along with the inclusion of the Fijian Drua who produce an exciting brand of rugby that will provide a challenge to all. Hopefully this year’s instalment of the NRC will hit the mark and be a huge success.
Malo5
Guest
Sydney produces 70% of the players so ignoring or excluding them is like dismissing the crusaders and hurricanes from an all black Comp.
Sterling
Guest
No. National problem. That's why I mentioned Melbourne. I could have easily included ACT & WA.
BM
Roar Rookie
Ok so 1 player who actually played for the Waratahs and 1 occasional bench player?? And 3 fringe Super Rugby players from other franchises
Malo5
Guest
The nrc changes every year. It is irrelevant. You may as well put a touch side out there or play touch, it contributes nothing to improving the super rugby or pathways. It’s a complete joke
Malo5
Guest
The country players aren’t country, and no tribalism exists for the city teams. No one willl watch it in Sydney but great for wa. Again it makes them think they are involved, when Sydney only cares about the finals this Saturday. Jez your not Brett , you know the truth.
Wise Old Elf
Guest
Twiggy should create his Force Union League with the biggest, most prestigious eastern seaboard union outfits. Just like the VFL did back in 1896 by inviting the biggest Victorian clubs into a breakaway from the VFA. Forget Honkers and Singapore. The only people there that might attend are expats.
piru
Roar Rookie
Is this another episode in 'Sydney problems being treated as national problems'?
piru
Roar Rookie
Well, you do pad your stats a bit with players getting free rides, don't you? The statement was 'no one cares', when it should have been 'no one in NSW cares'. We fill the hill every Spirit (now Force) game - what do you do?
AndyS
Guest
Agreed, but at the end of the day the NRC is and will only ever be what RA (and to some extent RUPA) will allow it to be. And the reality is, it is way down their list of priorities. No vision and no intent.
Sterling
Guest
If only the number of Wallabies provided by a state was the sole indicator of the support for the code there! Then your comment would actually mean something!
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
The NRC's biggest issue isn't the rule changes. It isn't the scorelines. It's the utter lack of promotion and marketing of the competition to the wider Rugby audience let alone the general public on behalf of its key stakeholders that has held the competition back. That and clear obfuscation on the behalf of the SRU with the scheduling of the Shute Shield. I've watched every iteration of the competition since its inception in 2014 (note this isn't the Australian Rugby Championship the author alludes to from 2007) and the Rugby on offer has been the most entertaining played in the country for the past three seasons at the very least. We've heard talk of a supercharged NRC but I am yet to see anything even remotely suggesting that this is the case. Which is a god damn shame. As the NRC is a fantastic Rugby competition from a spectator point of view. It needs more exposure and it needs some clear air around it. Which is why I think it should be moved back to late Sept through Nov.
Sterling
Guest
Jez, Sorry if this is pointing out the obvious, but I think what Malo is trying say is that the teams aren't representative of a region because the players aren't currently playing for a district or club within that region. as far as I know both Sydney and NSW Country squad members are all based in Sydney. Same goes with the QLD teams I guess. And I have to agree, it doesn't make for a very genuine competition. Not that I have a comp wide solution. I think it's easy enough fixed wrt Brisbane and Sydney by simply have two teams based in each of the capital cities. But then what do you do about Melbourne? Insisting on only offering Rising contracts to players that are playing for a Dewer Shield club wouldn't work either.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Agree that both NSW teams certainly have a favourable draw with 4 home games for both.
Atawhai Drive
Roar Guru
Sponsors come and sponsors go, and it's hard to keep up. New Zealand's national provincial championship (NPC) was sponsored by ITM up to and including 2015. For 2016, Mitre 10 took over. The third season of the Mitre 10 Cup began on August 16. Unlike Wallabies Tests, Super Rugby and the Shute Shield, the NRC has no presence on free-to-air television. In my neck of the woods, the Central Coast Rugby Union competition and the Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union competition will continue until September 15. Thus, the NRC does not figure prominently on the radar. But it's a step in the right direction.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Malo - you get to choose to support the Sydney side or NSW Country - pretty clearly cut regarding representing regions. I think your comment about not being aligned was on the money when teams like Southern were variously aligned West and North and that Easts and Randwick were aligned to Country. In the coming season players will go to either Sydney or Country based on their origin, I'm from Sydney so Sydney will be my team - simple! Or are you upset at all those Sydney produced players that will be playing for other teams?
jeznez
Roar Guru
Thanks for pointing that out - hadn't noted that this is a make up round. Looking at the full draw they'll have four day turn-arounds from the 15th to 19th and 23rd before falling back in line with the rest of the comp.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
Quite a NSW-centric view of the competition. The NRC has had an uneasy relationship with the Shute Shield clubs - but I'm not sure that you can say other states take the competition more seriously. In 2014 NSW Country were 2nd on the ladder. In 2015 Sydney were 4th. In 2016 the Eagles and Rays were 1st & 2nd on the ladder! Last year was a poor year with no NSW side making the finals, but that's after a year where they hosted all 3 finals matches.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
Unfortunately, Sydney & NSW Country are facing off on Wednesday in 3 weeks time (19th September), so the ladder will be a bit skewed until then. But the scheduling has been amended so both sides have homes games the week before and after. And the schedulers have been quite kind to NSW, as both the sides have 4 home and 3 away games (NSW Country only play twice outside NSW!) Almost as if the organisers are keen for a NSW side to do well!
max power
Guest
are you referring to the state that provides 70% of all wallabies as compared to WA which provides 1 player a decade. yeah,rugby in WA is huge
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It's not so much instant gratification, but self interest. As somebody else involved in my club said to me, too many are happy to be king of turn mountain. NRC instantly reduces the relevance of Shute Shield clubs, hence why many opposed it and felt that spreading the talent between 12 clubs in Sydney and 9-10 clubs in Brisbane is better than spreading all the talent across 7-8 teams Australia wide. I'd say a large reason why the west has withered on the vine is socio-economic. More wealthy benefactors in the East that have been able to prop clubs up in their later years. It's also the people in admin at club level. Wealthy people generally make better club administrators. From my personal experience, a huge factor is that the wealthy people I have been involved with, are generally in positions where they are able to dedicate more time to the role, either due to being a high level executive who works on their own calendar to an extent, or because they work for themselves. Their wealth, or the reasons that they are wealthy, enables them to dedicate the time to the role. Also talent more likely to leave the west for incentives as any money of incentives means a lot to people from less fortunate backgrounds. That's a bit of a generalization though as there are plenty of people in the west from reasonably well off working class and white collar backgrounds too. But still it is a factor. I'm fortunate that I've always been able to make a decent living since my father helped me get my first job out of school, and the experience from that has helped my career from there. Due to that I would never consider changing clubs for money or incentives. However other people not in my shoes may find that money or those incentives make a significant impact to them, and therefore you can't blame them.