North Harbour Rays

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North Harbour Rays
170px
Macquarie University North Harbour Rays
Founded 2007
Central Coast Rays (ARC)

2014
North Harbour Rays (NRC)
Location Sydney, Australia                                           
Ground(s) Manly Oval
(Capacity: 5,000)

Pittwater Park
(Capacity: 10,000)
Coach(es) Geoff Townsend
Captain(s) Luke Holmes
League(s) National Rugby Championship
2007 ARC Champions
(Central Coast Rays)
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
www.raysrugby.com.au

The North Harbour Rays is an Australian rugby union football team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team is one of three sides from Sydney in the competition; the other two being the Greater Sydney Rams and the Sydney Stars.[1]

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The North Harbour Rays team in the NRC takes its identity from the Central Coast Rays side that played in the earlier 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.[2]

The new Rays team was formed as a consortium of four Shute Shield clubs; Gordon, Manly, Northern Suburbs, and Warringah. The Central Coast Rays team in the ARC was also aligned with those four clubs, as well the Central Coast Waves.

Name and colours

The Rays' name was adopted for the team's first incarnation on the Central Coast, with a manta ray chosen to represent the marine environment of the local area.[3] The logo features a manta ray in navy blue, outlined in white, on a stylised emerald green and white rugby ball, outlined in navy blue. The only change from the 2007 logo is the name North Harbour replacing Central Coast. The team plays in a quartered harlequin-style strip composed of blue, red, and two shades of green from the four constituent clubs. The sleeves are gold and black, and the collar and shorts are white. All four clubs’ colours are featured on the socks.[4]

History

In 2007, an attempt was made to form a third tier of rugby in Australia, similar to New Zealand's ITM Cup and South Africa's Currie Cup. The newly formed competition included eight teams and was called the Australian Rugby Championship.[5] Three of those teams were based in New South Wales, including a Central Coast team.[6]

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 Central Coast Rays Logo.jpg
Central Coast Rays 2007 kit and logo. 
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Bluetongue Stadium where the Rays played in 2007.

Central Coast Rays (ARC team)

The Central Coast Rays' name and colours were officially unveiled in March 2007 by the New South Wales Rugby Union (NSWRU). The Rays' navy blue and emerald colours represented the ocean and bush landscape of the region.[3]

The Rays' local rivals in the ARC were the Sydney Fleet and the Western Sydney Rams. The three ARC teams from New South Wales were aligned with existing clubs and regions. The clubs aligned with the Central Coast Rays were Gordon, Manly, Northern Suburbs, and Warringah, from the Shute Shield competition, as well as the Central Coast Waves.

The Central Coast Rays played their home games at the Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium at Gosford, on the New South Wales Central Coast. Bluetongue Stadium, with an all-seater capacity of 20,159, had previously hosted numerous rugby union fixtures including Central Coast Waves matches and New South Wales Waratahs matches during the Australian Provincial Championship.[7]

John McKee was the head coach of the Central Coast team.[8][9] He had previously coached the Eastwood club and worked with French club Montferrand and Irish team Connacht.[8]

After finishing second on the league table, the Central Coast Rays came from behind against the Perth Spirit in their semi-final, winning 27 to 19. The Rays hosted the Melbourne Rebels in the inaugural ARC Grand Final and won 20 to 12, becoming the inaugural (and only) champions of the ARC.

The Australian Rugby Championship was terminated at the end of 2007 after only one season of competition, with the Australian Rugby Union citing higher costs than budgeted and further projected financial losses.[10] The Central Coast Rays team was disbanded at the end of the ARC.

North Harbour Rays (NRC team)

The National Rugby Championship was announced in December 2013 to commence in 2014 with expressions of interest open to any interested parties and the accepted bids announced early in 2014.

In March 2014 it was announced that the Rays would be revived as the North Harbour Rays to compete in the new National Rugby Championship.[11] The new Rays team was backed by a consortium of four Shute Shield clubs: Manly, Warringah, Northern Suburbs and Gordon.

The Rays secured Macquarie University as their principal partner on a two-year deal, to be officially be known as the Macquarie University North Harbour Rays for the 2014 and 2015 NRC seasons.[12]

Phil Blake was initially appointed as the Rays head coach for the 2014 season, with Scott Fava, Haig Sare and Geoff Townsend as part of the coaching staff,[13] but after Blake accepted a coaching opportunity with Leicester Tigers, Geoff Townsend was promoted to the head coaching position (and reappointed for 2015).[14][15] Damien Cummins replaced Fava as the forwards coach.[14] Greg Peterson was named as captain.[16]

Stadium

The home ground for the North Harbour Rays in the 2014 season was Brookvale Oval, located in Brookvale on Sydney's Northern Beaches. In 2015 this changed to sharing games between Manly Oval, home of member club Manly RUFC, and Pittwater Park, home of member club Warringah Rugby Club.

Current players

The following players were named in the North Harbour Rays' squad for the 2015 National Rugby Championship:[17]

 

Props

  • Australia Wayne Borsak
  • Australia Mitch Lewis
  • Australia Lawrence Hunting
  • Australia Alexander Northam
  • Australia Rory O'Connor
  • Australia Scott Sio

Hookers

Locks

  • Australia Ed Gower
  • Australia Richard Hooper
  • Australia Nick Palmer
  • Australia Harry Rorke
  • Australia Cameron Treloar
  • Australia Ruairidh Wilson
  

Loose Forwards

  • Australia Harry Bergelin
  • Australia Jack Dempsey
  • Australia Michael Hooper1
  • Australia Mark Johnson
  • Australia Boyd Killingworth
  • Australia Sam Ward

Scrum-halves

Fly-halves

  

Centres

  • Australia John Fakai
  • Australia Tom Hill
  • Australia Dennis Pili-Gaitau
  • Australia John Porch

Wingers

  • Australia Michael Adams
  • Tonga Sione 'Ala
  • Australia Tyson Davis
  • Australia Alex Northam
  • New Zealand Richard Woolf

Fullbacks

  • Australia Dave Feltscheer
  • Australia Reece Hodge

(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped, 1 denotes allocated national player additional to the contracted squad.

Emerging squad

The North Narbour Rays also announced an emerging squad for the 2014 season.[18]

Records

Honours

  • Champions: 2007 (ARC)

Season standings

National Rugby Championship

Year Pos Pld W D L F A +/- BP Pts   Play-offs  
2015 7th 8 2 0 6 275 339 −64 3 11   Did not compete
2014 7th 8 2 2 4 240 327 −87 0 12   Did not compete

Australian Rugby Championship

Year Pos Pld W D L F A +/- BP Pts   Play-offs  
2007 2nd 8 5 0 3 268 159 109 6 26   Champions

Head coaches

Captains

Squads

Gallery

  • North Harbour Rays scrum under the Scoreboard

  • North Harbour Rays warm up pre Round 8 game

  • North Harbour Rays scrum under the Grandstand

  • North Harbour Rays post match huddle

See also

References

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  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ NORTH HARBOUR RAYS ANNOUNCE 2015 NRC SQUAD
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

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