The NSW Country Eagles and the Sydney Stars will merge and play as the Country Eagles in the National Rugby Championships for the next five seasons. The joint venture will see NSW Country, Sydney University, Randwick and Eastern Suburbs join forces to play in Australia’s third tier competition. “We have been told by the ARU that the merger will be granted a license this year,” newly appointed General Manager Peter Playford told Rugby News. “I can’t talk about the specifics, but I can talk about the stakeholders. There will be a board of stakeholders which will be Easts, Randwick, Uni and NSW Country,” the former Stars coach added. All nine NRC sides were initially granted a two year competition license in 2014, which expired at the end of the 2015 season. “The general consensus was that NSW couldn't support four NRC teams and we saw that with some of the lop sided matches in the opening two years,” Playford said. “When that went around the table, the Stars were