Shute Shield

Club-based football played under rugby rules began in Sydney in 1870 with the founding of the Wallaroo FC. The few Sydney clubs in the late 1860s were likely using Victorian rules.

On 24 June 1874, a meeting was held between ten prominent football clubs to create a governing body to administer the game within New South Wales. The Southern Rugby Football Union was formed. The first task of the Union was to decide on a set of rules for all clubs to adhere to. Clubs were given "senior" or "junior" status which could change from season to season. Although a governing body had now been formed, there was no centrally controlled competition until many years later.

The Sydney Rugby Premiership

Initially, a competition was loosely arranged by the Union where the clubs were in charge of organising their own matches. This would result in clubs not playing the same teams or the same number of teams. A "Premier Club of the Colony" was declared by the Union at an end of year meeting. It was not necessarily given to the team that had the best results on the field. Results mattered, but other criteria may have also been used. What these were are not known.

The year 1880 saw the Southern Rugby Football Union endure the first splintering of the football code in Australia. It was during this season that a newspaper "war" began. Discussions centred around the merits of rugby football, British association football (soccer) and the Victorian game (Aussie rules football). As a result of these heated discussions, an association was formed under the Victorian rules with two strong clubs formed to play the game. No sooner than the dust had settled and another association was formed under the British Association rules. Despite this new competition, rugby football held sway as the premier code in Sydney.

In 1883, the Gardiner Challenge Cup was introduced with a mixture of "senior" and "junior" clubs competing. Foundation clubs included Redfern, Sydney University, Wallaroo, Newtown, Burwood, Oriental, Glebe, Balmain, St. Leonards, Parramatta, Arfoma and Paddington. The first Cup was won by Redfern who were undefeated. At the beginning of the season, a proposal was put to the Southern Rugby Union to change the rules determining how a game was decided. Prior to the 1883 season, a game was decided by the number of goals scored. The amendment that was successfully passed by the Union declared that games would be decided by number of points scored. A try was awarded 2 points, a conversion was 3 points and a goal kicked from the field of play 4 points.

Within a few years of the Gardiner Cup beginning, the Premiership had developed to become a more structured competition with a centralised list of fixtures and rounds. An official ladder was produced and maintained with points given for wins, draws and byes. By the 1890s a finals system was introduced to assist in determining the premiership winner.

The Sydney Rugby Premiership came under the control of the Metropolitan Rugby Union, a branch of the New South Wales Rugby Football Union (formerly the Southern Rugby Football Union), in 1897.

The District Competition

As early as 1893 it had been suggested to change the current structure of the premiership to a district-based formula. In early 1900, a meeting of the Metropolitan Rugby Union was held and a recommendation to establish district football in the coming season was made. Eight clubs competed in the inaugural season: Balmain, Glebe, Newtown, South Sydney, North Sydney, Western Suburbs, Eastern Suburbs and Sydney University. The first district competition was won by Glebe who were successful in all three grade competitions.

It was during this period, in 1907, that the supremacy of the Sydney Rugby Premiership was threatened. The imminent arrival of a professional football team from New Zealand sparked heated discussion about professionalism and compensation pay for lost time at work. In August of that year, the New South Wales Rugby Football League was formed. During the following season, a professional league competition was begun. Over the next few years, players switched across to the professional competition resulting in crowd numbers falling at Union matches.

Despite this, the district competition continued to run, rebuilding its supporter base, until the outbreak of World War 1 with the last season held during 1914. With the outbreak of war, competition was suspended.

The Return of the Premiership

At the conclusion of the war, the Sydney Rugby Premiership was recommenced. With the competition returning under the control of the NSW Rugby Football Union, only six clubs competed: Cambridge, Eastern Suburbs, Glebe-Balmain, Manly, Sydney University and YMCA.

The Shute Shield

The Shute Memorial Shield was struck in honour of the late Robert Elliott Stewart Shute, who died on 6 June 1922, aged 23, following a match at Manly Oval. Shute enlisted in April 1917 and served as a gunner in 30th Battery, Field Artillery A.I.F. during World War One.

On his return to Australia, Shute took up his engineering studies at the University of Sydney and joined the Sydney University rugby club as a front row forward in the first XV. Of Shute's death from a fractured skull and cerebral haemorrhage, the Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 7 June 1922 reported:

As a result of injuries received while playing at Manly in the Rugby football match between the team which toured New Zealand and the Next 15, Robert Elliott Shute, a front row forward in the latter team, died at a private hospital at Manly yesterday morning. The accident occurred during the latter portion of the first spell of the match. Shute secured the ball and when tackled fell heavily. He was removed to a private hospital, where it was ascertained that he was suffering from cerebral hemorrhage. Without recovering consciousness he died at 6am. A former pupil of Sydney Grammar School, Shute, who was 23 years of age, was a third year student at Sydney University and he played for the University first fifteen. He served in the AIF for four years.

The University club had the shield made following his death and donated it in 1923 to the NSWRFU to be used as a perpetual trophy for the Sydney first grade competition.

In 1966, the Sydney Rugby Union was formed to administer the running of Sydney rugby including the Shute Shield.

The Shute Shield marked its 100th year in 2022.

The NSW Championship

In late 1986, the Sydney Rugby Union (SRU) approved a new competition structure for the Shute Shield. The SRU were concerned about the falling number of clubs involved in the lower divisions. The new structure involved distributing all teams in the three competitions evenly across three new divisions with some teams earning the right to play for the premiership in the first division.

The clubs that made up first division were opposed to the new structure and sought the opportunity to form a breakaway competition affiliated directly with the NSWRFU. This resulted in the formation of a 10 club competition called the NSW Championship, while the remaining lower division clubs remained with the SRU Championship. Both competitions ran during the 1987 and 1988 seasons.

For the 1989 season, the NSW Championship clubs returned to the SRU and the Shute Shield.

In 1992, the NSW Rugby Union again took over the administration of the Shute Shield competition. In 2011, the SRU was reformed to take control of the competition once again.

Toohey's New Cup and the Australian Rugby Championship

From 2002 through 2006 the Toohey's New Cup was run to fill the void between Grade Rugby and Super Rugby in Australia. This became the Sydney Premiership competition, with the Shute Shield becoming the First Grade pre-season competition. However, in 2004 the Shute Shield was awarded to the Second Grade competition.

In 2007 the Toohey's New Cup was merged into the Shute Shield to become the Toohey's New Shute Shield when an attempt at an Australian wide domestic rugby competition, the Australian Rugby Championship, was started. The Australian Rugby Championship only lasted the one season.

Current clubs

Former clubs

From 1957 until 2014, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had broadcast the Match of the Day from the Shute Shield competition in NSW/ACT every Saturday afternoon and replayed nationally on Tuesday mornings. The ABC ended its 57-year partnership with the competition at the completion of the 2014 season, following the Australian Government's decision to cut funding to the national broadcaster.

On 17 March 2015, Sydney Rugby formally announced that the Seven Network would become the new free-to-air Match of the Day broadcasters of the Shute Shield in NSW, commencing on 21 March on 7TWO showing a match between Eastern Suburbs and Gordon. The Prime Network broadcasts to regional areas of NSW. This agreement has since been renewed, with the current contract running through the 2024 season.

On November 9, 2020, Nine Network confirmed their broadcast deal with Rugby Australia, giving them the rights to the Shute Shield. Beginning in 2021, 4 games a season will be televised live on one of Nine's free-to-air channels. The remainder of the games will be broadcast live on streaming service Stan.

The competition format currently involves an 18-week round-robin competition which is followed by a three-week play-off series culminating in a grand final. The playoffs are contested by the top six placed teams following the round-robin. The first week of the play-offs sees 1st play 6th, 2nd play 5th and 3rd play 4th. The lowest two losers are eliminated and the three winners plus the highest ranked loser proceed to week 2 of the play-offs. The two winners from week 2 proceed to the Grand Final in week 3.

• Up until 1886, the premiers were declared by the Union at an end-of-year meeting. It is not clear how the premiership was decided at these meetings.
• From 1886 to 1889, the season consisted of a round of games organised as a round-robin, with the premiership awarded to the team who finished the season at the top of the ladder. However, in 1887 there was a final to decide the premier.
• In 1890 and 1891, there was a final played after a round robin.
• From 1892-1898, after the round-robin first round, there were knockout competitions held to determine the winners of the RAS Shield and the SCG Trophy, with the results counting for premiership points and with the premiership awarded to the team who finished the season at the top of the ladder. In 1899 the results of the knockout matches did not count for premiership points.
• From 1900 onwards, the season consisted of either one or two rounds of round-robin games. The premiership was awarded to the team who finished the season at the top of the ladder. After 1907 there was a final played in some years after the round-robin.
• In 1919 and 1920, the premiership returned to the previous structure of a round-robin. Again, the premiership was awarded to the team who finished the season at the top of the ladder.
• From 1921, there was a final played in some years after the round robin.
• From 1932, the premiership was decided by a Grand Final.
• For 1987-88 a NSW Championship existed alongside the Shute Shield. The first grade teams played for the rebel NSW Championship, while the Shield contained clubs from the lower grades.
• In 2000 a challenge shield in the name of Sir Roden Cutler VC was introduced, with the holders to defend it each time they play a ‘home’ game. It was initially awarded to Eastwood in recognition of their Shute Shield win in 1999.
• From 2002 to 2006, the Shute Shield was awarded for a pre-season competition.

The Premier Club of the Colony

The Gardiner Challenge Cup

The Royal Agricultural Society Shield & The Sydney Cricket Ground Trophy

The District Premiership

The Shute Shield

The NSW Championship

The Sydney Rugby Premiership

Sir Roden Cutler VC Shield (commenced 2000)

Arthur Roden Cutler (1916-2002) was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in Syria in 1941 during WWII, knighted in 1965 after many diplomatic postings and is the longest-serving governor in the history of NSW.

Introduced at the beginning of the 2000 season, this trophy honours a great supporter of the game of rugby. The Shield was initially held by Eastwood (1999 premiers) and is defended at each home game by the current holder

n.b. records are very incomplete (2000-2009) and will be progressively updated

Ken Catchpole Medal

Fairfax/Herald Cup

• Collins, Tony (2015). The Oval World: A Global History of Rugby. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-40883157-1.