City vs Country Origin

Sport	Rugby league
Instituted	1928
Inaugural season	1987 (Origin rules)
Ceased	2017
Number of teams	2
Country	Australia (NSWRL/CRL)
Shield Holders	City (2017)
Most titles	City (68 titles)
Broadcast partner	Nine Network
Related competition	State of Origin

City vs Country Origin was an annual Australian rugby league football match that took place in New South Wales between City and Country representative sides. The City side represented the Sydney metropolitan area. While technically it was Sydney vs. the rest of NSW, players from the Central Coast (such as Matt Orford and Mark O'Meley) often represented City, but other players from the Central Coast (such as Chris Heighington) represented Country. The Country side represented the rest of New South Wales.

The concept of an annual clash between a City and Country team originally started in 1911 with a Metropolitan side taking on the Country team. The first match officially took place on 10 June 1911 with City taking the victory 29 to 8.^{[citation needed]} It would take another seventeen years before an annual clash between an official City and Country side was agreed upon during the 1928 season.^{[citation needed]}

Both sides were originally made up of the best players playing in the Country Rugby League of New South Wales and the Sydney-based NSWRL Premiership. However, the increasing drain of players from rural areas to the NSWRL clubs led to the City side becoming increasingly dominant and the Country side uncompetitive. The 'origin rule' for player qualification being introduced in 1987 so players in NSWRL clubs originally from outside Sydney became eligible to represent Country.^{[citation needed]}

The players who represented the City and Country sides came from the National Rugby League competition in Australia. The match was played before the State of Origin series and was often referred to as a selection trial for the New South Wales Blues team.

On 21 November 2016, the NRL announced that the City v Country annual match would be scrapped, with the 2017 match to be the final edition.^[1]

On 29 April 2021, the NSWRL announced the return of an expanded City vs Country representative round, featuring Under 16's, Under 18's and Open Age Men's games, Open Age Women's games, and Wheelchair and Physical Disability games.^[2] On 15 May 2021 the under age men's games and the women's game were played at Bankwest Stadium in Parramatta, while the wheelchair game was played at Shellharbour, NSW. On 16 May 2021 the physical disability and the men's game were played at Collegians Sports Complex in Figtree, NSW.

The city vs country came back in 2022 with the 16s, 18,s and women's played at 4 Pines Park, the wheelchair game was played at Niagra Park Stadium and the rest of the games were played at Leichhardt Oval with the men's game being won by Country beating City 36–34 on Sunday 15 May.

History

Country versus City had long played a part in New South Wales sporting history, with the first traces of the concept being linked back as far as 1886.^{[citation needed]} The then Southern Rugby Football Union (later to become the NSWRU) would hold an annual 'test match' between a Combined Countrymen and Metropolis sides, with the match to be used by the organisation for picking players for NSW.

The concept took off and by the early 1900s 'Country Week', as it was titled, became a major component of the Rugby calendar. This rivalry between City and Country continued to occur after Rugby League was formed in 1907. However, it was only in 1911 that rugby league held its first recorded City V Country clash. While there is some indication that a match may have been played in 1910, the code's infancy probably resulted in the game not being of a high enough standard to be recorded.

The representative match was played on a laissez-faire basis in League up until 1928 when the Country Rugby League and New South Wales Rugby League saw the value in making the tournament an annual match. This was understandable at the time for League, as many areas in Country NSW had not even heard of League until late 1927.

Newcastle was the first non-Sydney town to take up the code in 1909 in its own domestic competition, which was boosted by the participation of the Newcastle Rebels in the NSWRL Sydney competition in 1908 and 1909. The Illawarra region followed in 1910, but further away from Sydney it took longer for the code make any impact.

By the time the match was made a permanent fixture, interest in the concept was high enough to make it sustainable. However, similar to State of Origin before 1980, Country Rugby League faced the problem of its major players being snapped up by the richer Sydney clubs, draining the regional representative sides. This assisted City's domination of the fixture.

It was not until 1987, with the recent inclusions of Canberra, Illawarra and Newcastle in the NSWRL competition, that the "player drain" issue was addressed. The Origin rule, which was also used to revive the State of Origin concept, proved invaluable in giving Country the player base it needed to compete with the City team. However, Country only recorded their first win five years after the concept was introduced, in 1992.

Country then won three out of the five years after their first Origin victory before the City vs Country concept was removed from the representative scene (much like the World Sevens and Kangaroo Tours) as a result of the Super League War.

The competition was not revived until four years later, when the National Rugby League saw the match's value in terms of media exposure, television ratings and the merit of taking the fixture to country towns (the last time the game was played in Sydney was 1993 at Parramatta Stadium while the last full time NRL ground to host the game was WIN Stadium in Wollongong).

The last fixture was played in Mudgee on 7 May 2017, with more NRL games being played in regional New South Wales instead.^[1]

City vs Country results

Overall summary

Games played: 94

	Team	Wins	Losses	Draw
	City Origin	68	23	3
	Country Origin	23	68	3

Year by year

The table below shows the results of the annual City vs Country games from 1928 to the present day. The colour of the year denotes the team that has won or retained the shield.

2017 City vs Country Match

Country Origin	Position	City Origin
Michael Gordon	Fullback	Matt Moylan
Anthony Don	Wing	Clint Gutherson
Mitchell Aubusson1 (c)	Centre	Nathan Ross
Cheyse Blair	Centre	Tyrone Peachey
Brian Kelly	Wing	Josh Addo-Carr
Cody Walker	Five-eighth	Bryce Cartwright
Tyrone Roberts	Halfback	Chad Townsend
Dale Finucane	Prop	James Tamou
Damien Cook	Hooker	Cameron McInnes
Paul Vaughan	Prop	Paul Gallen (c)
Tariq Sims	2nd Row	Curtis Sironen
Kyle Turner	2nd Row	David Gower
Jack de Belin	Lock	Hame Sele
Connor Watson	Interchange	Joseph Paulo
Matt Prior	Interchange	Nathan Cleary
Adam Elliott	Interchange	Pauli Pauli
Daniel Alvaro	Interchange	Jake Marketo
Craig Fitzgibbon	Coach	Brad Fittler

¹ - Euan Aitken was originally selected to play but withdrew due to injury. Mitchell Aubusson was shifted from Second Row to Centre and Aitken was replaced by Daniel Alvaro.

Match details

7 May 2017 4:15pm (AEST)

Country Origin	10–20	City Origin
Tries: Anthony Don (36') 1 Adam Elliott (58') 1 Goals: Michael Gordon 1/2 (38')	[3] 1st: 6 – 8 2nd: 4 – 12	Tries: David Gower (10') 1 James Tamou (49') 1 Bryce Cartwright (80') 1 Goals: Clint Gutherson 3/3 (12', 40' pen, 51') Paul Gallen 1/1 (80')

Glen Willow Regional Sports Stadium Mudgee, New South Wales Attendance: 8,322 Referee: Ashley Klein, Alan Shortall Player of the Match: James Tamou

Women's City vs Country Origin

The Women's City vs Country Origin is the Women's rugby league version of the game and has been running since 2017.^[4][5][6]

2017 Women's City vs Country Match

Squads

Country Origin	Position	City Origin
Brittany Constable	Fullback	Tahlia Hunter
Rikeya Horne	Wing	Taleena Simon
Jayme Fressard	Centre	Nakia Davis-Welsh
Donna Sutton	Centre	Karri Doyle
Amy Broadhead	Wing	Kate Mullaly
Talia Atfield	Five-Eighth	Lavina Phillips
Kylie Hilder	Halfback	Allana Ferguson
Georgina Brooker	Prop	Eunice Grimes
Tammy Fletcher	Hooker	Rebecca Riley
Jennaya Ottaway	Prop	Ruby Ewe
Erin Blackwell	2nd Row	Talesha Quinn
Phoebe Desmond	2nd Row	Jasmin Allende
Margaret Watson	Lock	Nicole Backhouse
Alicia-Kate Hawke	Interchange	Kayla Peck
Jerry Burgmann	Interchange	Vanessa Foliaki
Jade Etherden	Interchange	Kaarla Cowan
Hollie Wheeler	Interchange	Botille Vette-Welsh
Mick Young	Coach	Chris Studdon

Match details

14 May 2017

Country Origin	8–20	City Origin

North Sydney Oval, North Sydney, New South Wales