UQ GATTON RUGBY UNION
Our club. Our history.
Before it was your jersey, it was someone else’s. Here are a few chapters of the Gatton rugby story we carry onto the field.
2025 RISDON CUP PREMIERS
The cup came home.
Gatton 29Toowoomba Rangers 26
On 6 September 2025, the Black Pigs won the Risdon Cup grand final at Toowoomba Sports Ground. After 33 years since the 1992 title, Gatton’s name was back on the cup.
A day for the players, coaches, volunteers and everyone who has stood on the sideline backing the Pigs.
See the official 2025 final result ↗From the College to the Pigs
The Black Pigs belong to a long rugby tradition at Gatton. Older records carry the Gatton College name; today, it is UQ Gatton on the badge and Hugh Courtney Oval under our boots.
The Past Students’ Association identified 2022 as the centenary of rugby on campus when planning a reunion of past and present teams. That is a lot of jerseys, road trips and Saturdays to follow.
A few chapters worth knowing
1959–1960
Our home ground takes shape
Hugh Courtney Oval was constructed beside the campus swimming pool. Hugh Courtney had taught English and general subjects at the College from 1943 to 1953. His name remains part of every home fixture.
1964
There at the start on the Downs
Gatton College’s second XV was among the teams in the opening season of the Darling Downs competition. The trophy they played for was the Risdon Cup.
1965
Gatton’s first Risdon Cup
The College claimed its first Risdon Cup the following year, putting Gatton’s name on the competition’s premier trophy.
1978 · 1981 · 1982 · 1992
Teams that left their mark
Further Risdon Cup wins followed in these four seasons. The 2014 Past Students’ Association history records those sides alongside the 1965 team: five early cup-winning chapters in Gatton rugby.
2021–2022
Keeping the old connections alive
A planned reunion of past cup-winning teams was interrupted by a COVID lockdown in 2021. The Association’s next plans brought the Black Pigs and women’s team into the same centenary reunion story.
The women’s game is part of our story
The 2021 club coverage in Re-Connect pictured both the Black Pigs and the women’s side, then described as the Black Sows. More recently, Gatton’s women contested the Darling Downs elimination finals in August 2026.
Our club history belongs to the women who pull on the jersey as well as the men.
The song carries on
Queensland Rugby has documented a team song passed down from earlier club generations, with a Fijian hymn added to the post-match tradition. The old customs still have a place, and each playing group brings something of its own.
That is a good way to think about your time here: look after your teammates, respect the jersey, and give the next lot something worth carrying on.
Up the Pigs.
Read more and sources
This is a short history, not a complete honours board. The dates and milestones above are drawn from these published records.
The centenary refers to rugby at Gatton campus. The records checked do not establish a founding date for the present club or a ranking among Australia’s oldest clubs, so we have not claimed either.
- Rugby Xplorer: 2025 Risdon Cup final — Gatton’s 29–26 win on 6 September at Toowoomba Sports Ground.
- Queensland Rugby Union, 2025 Annual Report, page 69 — Gatton recorded as A-grade Risdon Cup premiers.
- Re-Connect, Winter 2014, page 2 — the 1964 competition and Gatton’s early Risdon Cup wins.
- Re-Connect, Summer 2023, page 6 — Hugh Courtney and the oval’s construction.
- Re-Connect, Summer 2021, page 4 — both teams, reunion plans and the campus rugby centenary.
- Queensland Rugby: Black Pigs club traditions — the team song and post-match hymn.
- Queensland Rugby: Darling Downs finals, August 2026 — Gatton’s women in the elimination finals.
Historical sources checked 2 November 2026.