Wests are an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 club, established in 1951 and based in Toowong, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. They wear green and yellow jerseys and compete in the Queensland Premier Rugby

Queensland Premier Rugby

Queensland Premier Rugby is a club rugby union competition in Queensland, Australia. Ten clubs compete in the competition, eight of which are from Brisbane, with a club each from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast also competing. The competition has been contested in its present form since 1929...

 competition. The bulk of their players come from the Western Suburbs of Brisbane, fighting for players from local rivals GPS and university who are only a few suburbs away from each other. Wests, while not one of the bigger teams in Brisbane, are a proud, tight-knit club, who are seen as strugglers and battlers but always play above their weight and have achieved moderate success in their 50-year history.

Queensland Premier Rugby Grand Finals

Premiers

Wests were at their strongest in the 1990s and early 2000s. From 1998 to 2000 they made the final every year but fell agonisingly short each time. They finally won the grand final for the first time in 21 years in 2006 beating rugby stronghold Brothers by a point.

• 1977 Wests 15-10 Brothers
• 1985 Wests 10-7 University
• 2006 Wests 23-22 Brothers

Runners-Up

• 1991 Souths 22-15 Wests
• 1998 Souths 34-18 Wests
• 1999 Easts 16-15 Wests
• 2000 Souths 34-30 Wests

National Club Champions

Wests became Australian club champions

Australian club championship rugby union

The Australian club championship is a rugby union challenge match between the Brisbane and Sydney club premiers. The fixture was played on a regular basis from 1982 to 1991 and again since 2007, and also on an ad-hoc basis in various other years...

 in 1986 when they defeated the Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 premiers, Parramatta

Parramatta Eels

The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, with their First Grade side playing their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League...

. They went on to play Toulouse

Stade Toulousain

Stade Toulousain, also referred to as Toulouse, is a French rugby union club from Toulouse in Midi-Pyrénées. Toulouse is one of the finest rugby clubs in Europe, having won the Heineken Cup four times – in 1996, 2003, 2005 and 2010. They were also runners-up in 2004 and 2008 against London Wasps...

 in the final of the World Club Championship

World Club Championship rugby union

A World Club Championship for rugby union clubs was held in 1979 and 1986 in France.-1986 Tournament:Participant teams: SU Agen , CA Banco de la Nación , Stade Toulousain , RC Farul Constanța , Fijian Barbarians , L'Aquila Rugby , Ponsonby RFC , West Brisbane .In the semi-final in Toulouse, the...

, losing 11-6. In that same year Wests showed surprising depth at their Colts level (u. 19) where they won all three grade premierships on the same day.

Internationals

Past and present international players

• Berrick Barnes
  Berrick Barnes
  Berrick Barnes is an Australian rugby union footballer with the NSW Waratahs in the Super Rugby competition. His usual position is fly-half or inside centre and he previously played for the Queensland Reds....
  
  
• Bill Campbell
• Paul Carozza
  Paul Carozza
  Paul Carozza was an international rugby player for Australia who won 15 caps between 1990 and 1993. He was injured for the 1991 world cup but returned in time for the one off test against South Africa in 1992, scoring twice in the 26-3 win which ended any doubts over who was the world's best...
  
  
• Troy Coker
• Roger Gould
• Julian Gardner
• Andrew Heath
• Tim Lane
• Chris Latham
  Chris Latham (rugby player)
  Chris Latham is an Australian rugby union player, who played fullback for the Worcester Warriors, following a long career with the Queensland Reds and Australia....
  
  
• Hugh McMeniman
  Hugh McMeniman
  Hugh McMeniman is an Australian rugby union footballer. He currently plays for Kubota in Japan and has played for Australia. His favoured position is blindside flanker but he can also play lock.-Career:...
  
  
• John Meadows
• Stan Pilecki
  Stan Pilecki
  Stan Pilecki is a former Australian Rugby Union player with Polish roots. His family emigrated to Australia in 1950. He is also an ex Old Boy of Marist College Rosalie in Brisbane....
  
  
• Mathew Pini
• John Roe
• Brian Smith
• Bob Wood
• Scott Higginbotham

External links

• Western Bulldogs - Official website