Pre-Origin era (1907–1980)

The inaugural 'All Blues' squad of 1907.

The first New South Wales team to go to Queensland in 1910.

The New South Wales rugby league team pre-dates the Australian national team, playing their inaugural match against a rebel New Zealand rugby team on the 1907–08 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain under existing rugby union rules. That inaugural "All Blues" side, the first football team assembled by the newly formed NSWRFL was:

Backs: Charles Hedley · Johnno Stuntz · Ed Fry · Dally Messenger · Frank Cheadle · Albert Rosenfeld · Lou D'Alpuget

Forwards: Harry Hamill · Arthur Hennessy · Bob Mable · Peter Moir · Sid Pearce · Billy Cann · Robert Graves · Herb Brackenreg

Two further matches were played against New Zealand before their tour took them to the Northern Hemisphere, with Jim Devereaux also featuring for the Blues. The visiting All Golds won all three games. However, on the return leg of their tour, almost a year later, with the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership established, the Blues won the first two matches they ever played under 13-a-side rules against New Zealand. Later in 1908 the Queensland team, whose first taste of rugby league football was also against the visiting Kiwis, traveled to Sydney for the first series of games between the two states. New South Wales won all three matches, setting a precedent for interstate dominance that would continue throughout most of the 20th century.

In 1910 New South Wales defeated the touring England team in two of their three games. After that they became the first Blues side to travel to Queensland for the annual interstate series.

In 1912 the New South Wales team first toured New Zealand. They also visited New Zealand in 1913. During the 1913 New Zealand rugby league tour of Australia New South Wales played four matches against the Kiwis, winning three of them.

The New South Wales team lost its first game against Queensland in 1922. In 2019 the Blues also toured New Zealand.

During the 1951 French rugby league tour of Australia and New Zealand New South Wales played one match against the successful France national rugby league team, a 14-all draw.

The New South Wales team hosted 2 matches of the 1953 American All Stars tour of Australia and New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground, winning 62–41 and 27–18.

In a 1954 tour match between Great Britain and New South Wales the referee left the field in disgust at the players' persistent fighting after 56 minutes so the match was abandoned.^[1]

State of Origin era (1980–present)

New South Wales' dominance over Queensland came to an end with the introduction of 'state of origin' selection rules in the early 1980s.

During the Super League war, in 1997 New South Wales was represented by two teams: one made up of players from clubs that remained loyal to the Australian Rugby League, which competed in the 1997 State of Origin series; another made up of players from clubs that joined the rebel Super League which competed in the one-off Super League Tri-series.

Ricky Stuart, who had previously coached New South Wales in 2005, was announced as the first full-time Blues coach in November 2010. Following the 2012 series, the Blues' seventh consecutive loss, Stuart resigned the role. Stuart took a role as the Parramatta Eels head coach in 2013, citing family reasons for his move. Although the Blues continued their losing streak during Stuart's tenure, he is credited with restoring passion and pride to the NSW jersey and closing the gap between the two states. He was replaced by former Canberra, NSW and Australia teammate Laurie Daley. Daley's appointment as NSW State of Origin coach was announced in August 2012 and effective from season 2013. Daley got job over candidates including Trent Barrett, Brad Fittler and Daniel Anderson. Daley coached the Blues to a series win in 2014, their first since 2005 and over his coaching rival and long time Canberra & Australian teammate Mal Meninga. Daley ended Meninga's and Queensland's run of eight series wins with victories in Game I and Game II of the 2014 series. In 2015, New South Wales suffered its biggest origin loss losing 52–6 against Queensland in the decider. In 2016, New South Wales lost the series 2–1 but managed to win the third and final dead rubber game. In 2017, New South Wales were widely tipped to win the series as Queensland had a number of key players injured. In Game 1, New South Wales beat Queensland in convincing fashion 28–4 and in Game 2 were leading the maroons 16–6 at halftime before Queensland won the game in the final two minutes to win 18–16. In Game 3, New South Wales lost the series losing 22–6 in Brisbane. In August 2017, Daley was terminated as coach of New South Wales.^[2]

In 2018, Brad Fittler was appointed as the new coach and left out established players such as Aaron Woods, Josh Jackson, Blake Ferguson and Josh Dugan. The Blues went on to win the series 2–1.^[3] In 2019, the Blues were widely tipped to win the series owing to the retirement from representative football of Queensland Origin greats Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater and Cameron Smith. However, Queensland had an upset win 18–14 over the Blues in Game 1 forcing Fittler to make seven changes to the Blues starting line-up. Though he was roundly criticised for the move,^[4] the Blues went on to win the series 2–1, easily defeating Queensland 38–6 in Game 2 in Optus Stadium in Perth Western Australia, the greatest winning margin of a Blues squad since Game 3, 2000.^[5] Finally, in a thrilling Game 3 at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, winger Blake Ferguson and fullback James Tedesco combined to score the winning try with just 32 seconds to go in the game to secure the series, off the back of play started from recalled halfback Mitchell Pearce.^[6]In the 2020 State of Origin series, New South Wales narrowly lost game 1 against Queensland 18–14 before bouncing back in game 2 winning 34–10. In game 3, New South Wales travelled to Brisbane for the decider, the blues would lose the match at Suncorp Stadium 20–14.^[7]The 2021 State of Origin series was one which had been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic with all three matches being played in Queensland. New South Wales would win convincingly in game 1 defeating Queensland 50–6 in Townsville before defeating Queensland 26–0 in Brisbane to claim the series. Queensland managed to avoid a series clean sweep by winning game 3 20–18.^[8]New South Wales started the 2022 State of Origin series with a narrow 16–10 loss in Sydney before a convincing 44–12 victory over Queensland in Perth during game 2. In game 3, the blues once again needed to play a decider in Brisbane. New South Wales lead the game 12-10 at half-time but conceded two late tries in the second half and lost 22-12.^[9]

Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

- Denotes no applicable sponsor for the listed period.

~ Major sponsor logo was featured on the jersey sleeve rather than the front from 1991-2003.

• Since 1991, major sponsors logo has also featured above the NSW Blues logo on the team shorts. These are excluded from the "shorts sponsors" list unless the major sponsor logo also features on the rear/opposite leg to the team logo.
• Since 1991, major sponsors logo has also featured above the NSW Blues logo on the jersey bust. These are excluded from the "minor sponsors" list, aside from both Wizard & Aussie Home Loans, which featured additionally on the collar from 2001-2010.

^ Indicates the sponsor was the naming-rights partner of the State of Origin series at the time, but the logo was displayed independently of the State of Origin logo.

• "Winfield State of Origin" red box logo was added to the shorts in 1989 and featured until the end of the 1992 series, becoming the first naming rights partner to feature as a part of the State of Origin logo on a team kit.

• "Winfield State of Origin" was embroidered in a plain navy font onto the jersey bust in 1991 & 1992, becoming the first naming rights partner to appear on a jersey.
• Tooheys logo appeared on the jersey from 1993 until the conclusion of the 1996 series, no State of Origin logo was included on the jersey.
• Tooheys featured as a part of the State of Origin logo from 1993 until the conclusion of the 1996 series, included on the NSW Blues shorts in each of those years.
• Tooheys featured on the NSW Blues shorts in 1997 above the team logo as their major sponsor, Coca-Cola became naming rights partner of the series and became a part of the State of Origin logo on the shorts.

Supporters

The official New South Wales rugby league team supporter group is known as "Blatchy's Blues".^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

Current squad

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Pts	Club
Wing	Josh Addo-Carr	(1995-07-28) 28 July 1995	13	40	Canterbury Bulldogs
Centre	Matt Burton	(2000-03-14) 14 March 2000	2	4	Canterbury Bulldogs
Halfback	Nathan Cleary	(1997-11-14) 14 November 1997	12	84	Penrith Panthers
Hooker	Damien Cook	(1991-06-23) 23 June 1991	16	12	South Sydney Rabbitohs
Centre	Stephen Crichton	(2000-09-22) 22 September 2000	3	0	Penrith Panthers
Second-row	Tyson Frizell	(1991-10-09) 9 October 1991	14	12	Newcastle Knights
Centre	Campbell Graham	(1999-06-02) 2 June 1999	0	0	South Sydney Rabbitohs
Prop	Payne Haas	(1999-02-12) 12 February 1999	8	0	Brisbane Broncos
Halfback	Nicho Hynes	(1995-06-18) 18 June 1995	0	0	Cronulla Sharks
Second-row	Keaon Koloamatangi	(1998-05-23) 23 May 1998	0	0	South Sydney Rabbitohs
Hooker	Apisai Koroisau	(1992-11-07) 7 November 1992	2	4	Wests Tigers
Five-eighth	Jarome Luai	(1997-01-16) 16 January 1997	4	4	Penrith Panthers
Second-row	Liam Martin	(1997-03-05) 5 March 1997	4	0	Penrith Panthers
Centre	Latrell Mitchell	(1997-06-16) 16 June 1997	7	32	South Sydney Rabbitohs
Halfback	Mitchell Moses	(1994-09-16) 16 September 1994	2	0	Parramatta Eels
Lock	Cameron Murray	(1998-01-16) 16 January 1998	8	4	South Sydney Rabbitohs
Prop	Tevita Pangai Junior	(1996-02-04) 4 February 1996	1	0	Canterbury Bulldogs
Prop	Junior Paulo	(1993-11-20) 20 November 1993	7	0	Parramatta Eels
Hooker	Reece Robson	(1998-06-18) 18 June 1998	1	0	North Queensland Cowboys
Fullback	James Tedesco (c)	(1993-01-08) 8 January 1993	17	28	Sydney Roosters
Wing	Brian To'o	(1998-08-18) 18 August 1998	4	8	Penrith Panthers
Centre	Tom Trbojevic	(1996-10-02) 2 October 1996	8	36	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
Prop	Stefano Utoikamanu	(2000-05-15) 15 May 2000	0	0	Wests Tigers
Lock	Isaah Yeo	(1994-11-06) 6 November 1994	6	0	Penrith Panthers
Second-row	Hudson Young	(1998-06-11) 11 June 1998	0	0	Canberra Raiders

Team of the Century (1908–2007)

Before Game I of the 2008 State of Origin series, to celebrate the game's centenary that year, New South Wales named their team of the century:^[15]

No. Position Player FB Clive Churchill WG Ken Irvine CE Reg Gasnier CE Graeme Langlands WG Dally Messenger FE Bob Fulton HB Andrew Johns PR Frank Burge HK Sandy Pearce

No. Position Player PR Glenn Lazarus SR Ron Coote SR Norm Provan LK Johnny Raper RE Wally Prigg RE Dave Brown RE Steve Rogers RE Roy Bull

Hall of Fame

Ahead of the 2017 State of Origin series, NSW named the inaugural inductees to the NSWRL Hall of Fame, joining automatic inductees Dally Messenger and the seven Immortals who represented NSW.^[16]

Immortal	Year Inducted	Club/s
Dally Messenger	Automatic Selection	Eastern Suburbs
Clive Churchill	Automatic Selection	South Sydney
Bob Fulton	Automatic Selection	Manly-Warringah Eastern Suburbs
Reg Gasnier	Automatic Selection	St. George
Johnny Raper	Automatic Selection	Newtown St. George
Graeme Langlands	Automatic Selection	St. George
Arthur Beetson	Automatic Selection	Balmain Eastern Suburbs
Andrew Johns	Automatic Selection	Newcastle
Bradley Clyde	2017	Canberra Canterbury-Bankstown
Ron Coote	2017	South Sydney Eastern Suburbs
Laurie Daley	2017	Canberra
Brad Fittler	2017	Penrith Sydney City
Bob McCarthy	2017	South Sydney Canterbury-Bankstown
Norm Provan	2017	St. George
Keith Holman	2018	Western Suburbs
Ken Irvine	2018	North Sydney Manly-Warringah
Steve Rogers	2018	Cronulla-Sutherland St. George
Steve Mortimer	2019	Canterbury-Bankstown
Tommy Raudonikis	2019	Western Suburbs Newtown
Billy Smith	2021	St. George
Brett Kenny	2021	Parramatta
Glenn Lazarus	2021	Canberra Brisbane Melbourne

Origin Greats

As part of the 25-year celebrations in 2005, New South Wales named 25 legends for each year before that.^[17]

No. Position Player FB Tim Brasher SR Noel Cleal LK Bradley Clyde FE Laurie Daley HK Benny Elias CE Andrew Ettingshausen FE Brad Fittler WG Eric Grothe Sr. PR Paul Harragon FB Garry Jack HB Andrew Johns FE Brett Kenny

No. Position Player PR Glenn Lazarus CE Paul McGregor HB Steve Mortimer WG Michael O'Connor LK Wayne Pearce LK Ray Price PR Steve Roach PR Ian Roberts SR Paul Sironen HB Peter Sterling HB Ricky Stuart HB Geoff Toovey WG Rod Wishart

Captains