Horan-Little Shield


The Horan-Little Shield is a trophy in Australia's domestic rugby union competition.
Proposed to the Australian Rugby Union, now known as Rugby Australia, by members of the Green and Gold Rugby supporters website,
it was first played for in 2015.
The Shield is modelled on New Zealand's Ranfurly Shield, in which the holding union must defend the shield in challenge matches, and a successful challenger becomes the new holder of the Shield. The team who holds the Shield at the conclusion of the National Rugby Championship is considered to have won the Shield for that year, and are the only team to have their name engraved on it.
The Shield is named for former Wallaby players Tim Horan and Jason Little to symbolise friendship and community. Horan and Little played together and against each other from junior club level all the way up to become Australia's centre field partnership in winning the Rugby World Cup.
The Shield was first won by Melbourne Rising before the 2015 season, by virtue of their undefeated record in the inaugural NRC regular season.

Challenges

Terms of competition for the Horan-Little Shield are:
A team that holds the Shield is required to put it up for challenge at every home fixture. They are not obliged to accept challenges for away fixtures, though they may choose to do so.
If a team has successfully defended two challenge matches since becoming the Shield holder, then that team's subsequent matches, home or away, become automatic challenges. The Shield holder at the end of the regular season becomes the only team whose name is engraved on the Shield as winner for that season.

Shield record

YearTeamBecame
the holder		Successful
defences
201418 October 20141
201529 August 20155
201611 September 20161
201625 September 20160
20162 October 20160
20168 October 20160
20173 September 20171
2017Fijian Drua7 October 20170
201721 October 20170
201729 October 20170
20181 September 20183
2018Fijian Drua13 October 20181
20197 September 20192
201929 September 20190