The late 19th century was when rugby began to be played in the region around what is now
Canberra.
Goulburn Rugby Union Club became a founding member of the
Southern Rugby Union in 1874, and
Queanbeyan played
Yass in 1878. Teams from
Hall and the
Royal Military College, Duntroon played rugby union matches prior to the First World War. The
Federal Capital Territory Rugby Union was established and re-established several times in the 1920s and 30s, before the
First Grade competition was finally started in 1938 with four clubs playing in the inaugural season.
ACT representative team The Territory's representative team hosted the
All Blacks at
Manuka Oval in the winter of 1938. The Canberra side managed to score a try before the interval and trailed the visitors at half time by 24–5 before the New Zealanders went on to win by 57–5. Coached by Frank O'Rourke, the home team had played its inaugural match only three months earlier. The team's original strip featured an all gold jersey with two green bands. They defeated the
Hawkesbury College at the Country Carnival earlier in 1938, and later that season won against the
Bathurst side. Three players from the Territory team were selected for
NSW Combined Country to play Sydney that year. The Australian Capital Territory team, often referred to simply as "Canberra", grew in stature in the decades following the Second World War. ACT won the Caldwell Cup for the Country Championship for the first time in 1964 and retained it for the following two seasons. Rugby in Canberra came of age in the 1970s. ACT scored a 17–11 away win over
Queensland in 1972, and then had their first win over a national side, defeating
Tonga by 17–6 in 1973. In 1975, ACT won promotion for the following season to the top division of the
Wallaby Trophy, Australia's provincial championship at that time. The triumph was short-lived, however, because the planned tournament for 1976 was officially cancelled. When
Wales toured Australia in 1978, the ACT defeated them in a rousing 21–20 come-from-behind victory. The win over the reigning
Five Nations champions showed that ACT could compete against the top tier of rugby players in the world. The name "Canberra Kookaburras" was used for the ACT representative team from 1989, but it was to be a further five years before the Canberra Kookaburra club was officially founded. When the ACT comprehensively beat
New South Wales by 44–28 in 1994, an invitation was issued for a Canberra club to play in the expanded 14-team
NSWRU Premiership sponsored by
AAMI for the following season.
Canberra Kookaburras: AAMI Cup The
ACT Rugby Union formed the Canberra Kookaburra Rugby Club in August 1994, with
Tuggeranong Vikings RUC as underwriter. For the 1995 AAMI Cup, the Canberra Kookaburras played their home games at
Manuka Oval and had to travel to Sydney on most other weekends. The club fielded teams in first grade, reserve grade and colts. The Canberra Kookaburras played in a white and black strip, separated by bands of blue and gold (ACT's traditional colours) around the centre of the jersey. White and black were the colours of the first Canberra team formed in 1927. Canberra's reserve grade team won their grand final in the first season. The first grade team, coached by Geoff Stokes, also made the grand final in their first season but lost to
Gordon by 24–11 to finish as runner-up in 1995. The advent of the
ACT Brumbies and
Super 12 in 1996 affected the Kookaburras' playing strength, with only one man from the previous grand final team available for the start of the 1996 season. Canberra were placed fifth in the regular season that year, and lost to
Randwick in the elimination final. The Kookaburras were coached by Kim Thurbon in 1997, and by Ian Snook in 1998. The first grade team did not make the finals in either year. Travelling had caused a heavy financial drain on the club by 1998. Ownership of the Canberra Kookaburras was transferred to
Tuggerannong Vikings RUC in 1998 and the team's name was changed to Canberra Vikings for the 1999 season.
Canberra Vikings The Canberra Vikings adopted the red and white colours of
Tuggeranong Vikings RUC with black detailing on the jersey and black shorts.
NSW Premiership Ian Snook was retained as the team's first grade coach after the club's changeover of colours and name to the Canberra Vikings. The NSW Premiership was sponsored as the Citibank MasterCard Cup in 1999, and Canberra just missed out on making the finals. Despite the Vikings playing in the semi-finals in 2000, both Canberra and Newcastle were dropped from the competition for the 2001 season. The Vikings then made arrangements to play in Queensland.
Queensland Premiership The Canberra Vikings played in the
QRU's Premiership from 2001 to 2003 and won the grand final each year to take three consecutive titles. Canberra's entry increased the number of clubs from nine to ten and brought an added professionalism to the competition that was sponsored as the
XXXX Premiership in 2001. With Terry Burkett as coach, the Vikings finished second in the 18-round regular season behind
GPS Old Boys, but comfortably beat the
Gold Coast Breakers by 32–10 in the grand final to win the Hospitals Cup. The
Queensland Premier Rugby competition was introduced in 2002, using additional funding from an
ARU program to strengthen the top tier of Australian clubs in a transition to semi-pro rugby. Played in the second half of the season to allow
Super 12 players to compete, the Premier Rugby competition spanned nine rounds followed by a finals series for the Hospitals Cup. For the first half of the season the clubs played for the Welsby Cup, which was won by
Sunnybank in 2002.
Laurie Fisher stepped up from the assistant coaching role the previous season to become the Vikings' head coach and his team took out the double in the 2002 Premier Rugby competition. The Vikings won the minor premiership with an 8–1 season before defeating
Easts Tigers in the grand final, avenging a regular round loss to the Tigers with a 45–3 win. Fisher was the head coach again in 2003 when Canberra finished second behind
University of Queensland in the minor premiership, but his team went on to beat the
Gold Coast Breakers in the grand final by 29–16 to win their third title in a row.
NSW Premiership: Tooheys New Cup After nine seasons of Canberra teams playing in interstate competitions, the Vikings' relations with the premier clubs in Sydney and Brisbane had become strained. This was reportedly due to a view that the Vikings were being given the opportunity every week of poaching talented young players and that the team was being run as a shadow
ACT Brumbies development side. Nevertheless, possibly due to the ARU's intervention, Canberra was granted approval to play in Sydney or Brisbane for 2004. The Vikings took the option closer to home and went to Sydney for their tenth season on the road.
Nick Scrivener was the coach of the Canberra Vikings in the
Tooheys New Cup for 2004. He led the team to a qualifying final after they had finished fourth in the regular season and won seven matches from twelve. The Vikings lost to
Sydney University in the qualifier by 44–14. In 2005, the team was coached by John Ross. He also guided the side to seven wins from twelve matches in the regular season, but the Vikings finished sixth that year and did not play in the finals. Canberra was kicked out of the NSW Premiership for a second time ahead of the 2006 season, ostensibly to streamline the Sydney competition and allow the
NSWRU to make more room in their calendar for the proposed
Australian Provincial Championship.
Australian Rugby Shield The Vikings entered the
Australian Rugby Shield in 2006, playing as the "ACT & Southern NSW Vikings" following the renaming of the
ACT Rugby Union after its expansion into Southern New South Wales the previous season. The team had two close matches against
NSW Country and
Perth Gold during the season, but managed to progress undefeated through the three pool games, semi-final and final to win the competition and take the shield. The Vikings played the
Melbourne Axemen in the grand final at Viking Park and never looked back after the third minute when inside centre Josh Staniforth scored the first of the side's five tries for the match in a 36–10 win.
Australian Rugby Championship The Canberra Vikings played in the
Australian Rugby Championship, known as the ARC, in 2007.
Nick Scrivener returned as coach. The Vikings failed to progress beyond the robin-round stages after just three wins from eight matches; 17–8 against
Perth Spirit, 53–8 over the
Ballymore Tornadoes and a 29–6 win away against
Sydney Fleet. The ARC was terminated at the end of 2007 after only one season of competition, with the Australian Rugby Union citing higher costs than budgeted and further projected financial losses. The Canberra Vikings team was disbanded with the end of the ARC competition.
National Rugby Championship In late 2013, the
ARU announced the national competition would be relaunched as the
National Rugby Championship in 2014. The expressions of interest were open to all parties and tenders were finalised in early 2014. A three-way partnership between the
Brumbies,
Tuggeranong Vikings and
University of Canberra was granted a licence for a revived Canberra Vikings team, named as the University of Canberra Vikings.
Dan McKellar was appointed as head coach for 2014, and the University of Canberra Vikings (UC Vikings) played their home matches at
Viking Park. The team finished sixth in the regular season and did not compete in the finals. Prior to the 2016 NRC season, the Brumbies chief executive, Michael Jones, had suggested that the "Canberra Kookaburras" name might be reinstated. Reverting to the ACT's traditional blue and gold colours was also canvassed, but it was likely that a voting process would be used for any change. A decision was postponed due to financial considerations until 2017, when the plan was revoked after the Vikings Group took sole ownership of the team licence. However, the team adopted a heritage-style blue, gold, black and white jersey for their first game of the season in 2017, coinciding with a Kookaburras team reunion as part of the NRC's heritage round. ==Stadium==