History
In 1957 the Forest Rugby story began when a small group of men from the Frenchs Forest area, who used to meet for a drink after work in a Chatswood Hotel, decided they would like their sons to play rugby. As there was no organised rugby in the area, one of the fathers Bill Holmes, formed a team of boys to enter the Gordon, Northern Districts competition. The team was coached by Dick Healy and managed by Bill Holmes and Les Cowan.
By 1958 the number of players, officials and supporters increased and it was decided to form a club. The first meeting was held in Soldiers Hall, Forestville on 10 February 1958. The clubs colours of Bottle Green and White were chosen. The home ground would be French's Forest Primary School Oval.
Throughout the 60's the club progressed further by drafting and having accepted a constitution, increasing their junior teams to 14 and re-locating to the permanent home ground of The War Memorial Playing Fields, Melwood Oval, Forestville. Notably, in 1966 the clubs numbers had grown to 300 with 16 teams being fielded and Peter Sullivan being the first player from the club to be selected to play for NSW (and later went onto captain Australia).
In 1972 the club entered its first team in the Sydney Sub-District Competition where they stayed until 1979 where they were invited to join the newly formed 3rd Division. After several years of playing in the higher division it was decided to return to Sub-District competition in 1982 after difficulty fielding teams in all 4 grades due to the vast amount of traveling involved.
The club has been a centre of community activity throughout the 80's, 90's and into the millennium staging junior rugby training camps, golden oldies tournaments and fierce and competitive local rugby.
Read more about this topic: Forest Rugby Club
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