Sydney Stars

The Sydney Stars were an Australian rugby union football team that competed in the National Rugby Championship (NRC) in 2014 and 2015. The Stars team was formed as a joint venture between the Sydney University and Balmain rugby clubs, and was one of four New South Wales teams in the competition.

The NRC was launched in 2014, reinstating the national competition after an absence of six years. Sydney University was initially interested in entering the NRC competition as a stand-alone club, but submitted a joint bid with Balmain as the Sydney Stars.

The Sydney Stars' colours of gold, blue and black was drawn from the rugby clubs of Sydney University and Balmain. The team logo was the name "Sydney" in blue capitals outlined in white above the name "Stars" in gold capitals outlined in blue, and with the central letter "A" formed as the top point of a stylised five-pointed star, also in gold and outlined in blue. The entire design was outlined in black.

The previous national competition was the Australian Rugby Championship (ARC), which was discontinued in 2007 after only one season. After setting up a consultative process in 2006 which culminated in a working session of some 70 delegates from around the country, the Australian Rugby Union announced that a new eight-team national competition would commence in 2007. New South Wales was allocated three teams and it was decided that representative teams would be formed to play out of the Central Coast, Western Sydney, and Sydney. The decision was controversial because two New South Wales clubs, Sydney University and Randwick, had wanted to enter stand-alone teams in the new competition.