Rugby league in New South Wales is the most popular spectator sport in the state, with the attendance and television audiences exceeding that of the various other codes of football. There are over 400,000 active rugby league participants, with a further 1 million playing the sport in schools, placing the sport second only to soccer for the most played sport in the state. There are more than 500 active clubs, ten of which are professional teams competing in the National Rugby League (NRL).
The code in Australia began in Sydney in 1907 when the New South Wales Rugby League was formed as a professional competition, following the rules of the Northern Rugby Football Union in England. New South Wales remains the headquarters in Australia, with the Australian Rugby League based in Sydney. Sydney hosts the annual NRL Grand Final and has hosted the Rugby League World Cup twice.
Rugby league, along with touch football variant is played in most secondary schools throughout the state as well as at junior and club levels.
The premier state-level league is the New South Wales Cup, involving reserve teams for New South Wales sides in the NRL.
The New South Wales rugby league team plays against the Queensland rugby league team annually in the State of Origin series. Origin legends include: James Tedesco, Jarryd Hayne, Andrew Ettingshausen, Eric Grothe, Laurie Daley, Brad Fittler, Andrew Johns, Phil Gould, Bradley Clyde, Paul Sironen, Ben Kennedy, Glenn Lazarus, Paul Harrogan, Danny Buderus, Steve Roach, Boyd Cordner, Michael O'Connor and Brett Kenny.[3] Clive Churchill, Bob Fulton, John Raper, Reg Gasnier, Graeme Langlands, Dally Messenger, Frank Burge and Dave Brown have been bestowed the title rugby league "Immortals".[4]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
participation 2023/2024was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "History". 19 March 2015.
- ^ https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/11/11/legends-choose-greatest-nsw-origin-team-of-all-time/ Legends choose greatest NSW Origin team of all time] Troy Whittaker 11 November 2020
- ^ NRL Immortals: Dally Messenger, Frank Burge and Dave Brown become first pre-war inductees in bombshell announcement Michael Di Lonardo 8 January 2018