New South Wales Waratahs

The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;"waratah." Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved 2010-08-17. . referred to as HSBC Waratahs for sponsorship reasons, the Waratahs, the Tahs or the florists) are an Australian rugby union football team, representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super 15 (formerly Super 14) Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the state, are represented by the Brumbies, who are based in Canberra and owned by the ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union.

The Waratahs has historically been the name for the New South Wales Rugby Union (NSWRU) representative team, and became the name for the New South Wales team when it entered the Super Six, Super 10 and Super 12 competitions. The name and emblem comes from the waratah, the state flower for New South Wales. Their home ground is Sydney Football Stadium at Moore Park in Sydney. The Waratahs are the third most successful Australian Super Rugby franchise, behind the Brumbies (2 championships) and the Reds (1 championship).

Amateur era

The NSWRU (or then, The Southern RU – SRU) was established in 1874, and the very first club competition took place that year. By 1880 the SRU had over 100 clubs in its governance in the metropolitan area. In 1882 the first New South Wales team was selected to play Queensland in a two-match series. NSW would go onto win both the games.

That same year...
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