A Review of 2025 from October to December: Canadian Men Drop 3 in Europe, SVNS Series Starts for Women, University Titles Decided Guelph Win Men’s – UBC Win Women’s, BC Youth Club Titles Decided
The October to December window saw the men’s XVs team travel to Europe for the November tests, they dropped games to Romania, Georgia and Portugal. The University championships kicked off with UBC winning the women’s title over UVic and Guelph winning the men’s title over ETS. The SVNS series started for the women with stops in Dubai and Cape Town, the women finished 6th in both tournaments. MLR dropped a bombshell in October, only 7 spots for non-USA players per team, and Canadian players were included as imports. The BC club youth championships wrapped up in December with Abbotsford taking both U16 and U18 girls, CW winning U18 boys and Capilano U16 boys.
OCTOBER
The 2027 World Cup is starting to get hyped in 2025. World Rugby announced the format, draw date and ticket information.
The men’s November tests were announced, Romania, Georgia, Portugal the opponents.
It was mid-October when MLR stated that teams would have to have 16 USA eligible players in their match day roster. Canadian players would now have to compete for 7 match day spots along with SA, NZ and every other country in the world.
UVic claimed the CanWest regional XVs title, defeating UBC. Carissa Norsten was named the CanWest player of the year.
The PWR league kicked off their 2025-26 season in England, there were 23 Canadian players listed on the team rosters.
Stephen Meehan named his 33 player list for the national team November tour.
NOVEMBER
November started with the women’s national University championship match, UVic vs UBC. This time UBC would claim the win and the national title, reversing the regional CanWest result.
Utah became the latest MLR team to announce they were dropping out of the 2026 season, the league was now down to 6 teams.
Canada fell to Romania 31-21 in their first match of the November tour.
The Canadian Classics ended their World Rugby Classic tournament with a win over USA, going 2-1 and only losing to eventual winner Argentina.
Canada lost their 2nd match on the November tour, 38-17, to Georgia.
Guelph became the first Ontario university to win the men’s University title, defeating last year’s champs, ETS. UBC came 3rd and UVic 4th.
Canada lost their 3rd match of the November tour, 33-27, to Portugal.
Canada won the RAN 7s which qualified them for the SVNS 3 tournament in January 2026.
The SVNS series kicked off in Dubai for the Canadian women, they finished 6th out of 8 teams.
DECEMBER
The draw for the 2027 World Cup was announced. Canada are in a pool with Argentina, Fiji and Spain.
Two former Canadian coaches were picked up by other countries, Francois Ratier was named as head coach of France women’s XVs and Jack Hanratty as head coach of USA women’s XVs.
The second SVNS tournament wrapped up in Cape Town, Canada again finished 6th.
The BC club youth finals took place, Abbotsford won the U16 and U18 girls titles, CW took the U18 boys title and Capilano the U16 boys title.