Will the Pacific Pride Return for the 2026-27 Season?
The 2025-26 season is over for the Pacific Pride and some are asking, will they return next season? They’ve had their worst season since returning in 2019. They only had a single round of games in the BC Premier and ended up with 1 win, 1 draw and 7 losses. They were emphatically defeated by visiting teams in exhibition matches. Their coach was assigned to the men’s 7s mid-season. Less games, less wins, less funding, less coaching, the momentum seems to be running out. We’ve heard the rumours, the program is under review, that comes from credible sources. Then yesterday we heard from someone talking to a parent of a returning player, “We have heard the Pacific Pride are no more”. We don’t know that for sure, but the smoke/fire thing, everyone in the community has heard the program is under review but it’s just conjecture at this point what the outcome will be. We asked Rugby Canada for information, but as usual it will come when they’re ready to make an announcement.
Maybe the program tried to be too many things, a U20 feeder, a national team feeder, it didn’t do either very well. I spoke to a player from the original CCSD/Pacific Pride, this was his view of the current situation, “I’ve always maintained it was way too young. It lost its way a bit and we lost many players in their mid twenties because there was nothing to play for (no CRC, no super league). Kids left the program at 20/21 and they were burnt out. It could work if it returned to that philosophy, 21-23 yr olds, two years to train them for pro & national team. They leave at 24-25 and are closer physically to the next level. Leave the kids to the universities and clubs to mature in men’s rugby. Recruit heavily from outside BC and find the diamonds.”
There are other factors that impact their presence in the BC Premier as well, there are three teams potentially vying for entry next season, Langley, Bayside, Rowers. That would bring the total to 12 teams without the Pride. It’s doubtful the league would go beyond 12 teams.
Read through the Rugby Canada announcement from the spring of 2019, posted below, announcing the return of the Pacific Pride. Seven years ago, a lot has happened since then. The key point was the funding “via existing centralization budget”. Before the Pride announcement in 2019, in 2017-18 when MLR was starting, Rugby Canada had planned a centralized program for senior players, Francois Ratier was brought in to be the coach. Then MLR signed the best players and the concept died, the next season the Pacific Pride was reborn as a development program. Well now MLR has changed, Canadian players are treated as imports, the numbers have gone down. It’s a World Cup season for 2026-27, would it not make sense to revive the original idea of a centralized program for senior players? The concept worked well for Uruguay prior to the 2019 World Cup.
We have players in Portugal, Uruguay, France, England, NZ, Australia, USA, getting various levels of competition. World Rugby helped fund the Uruguay high-performance centralization program prior to 2019, would they do the same for Canada?
Fully funded by Rugby Canada via existing centralization budget allocations, the program is nicknamed in honour of a previous academy based out of Victoria that participated in the BC Rugby Premier League from 1996 through 2005. The Academy will run approximately 10 months a year out of the Rugby Canada Al Charron National Training Centre in Langford B.C., and will field its first team in the 2019-2020 Premier League season.
At its peak, the original Pacific Pride program helped to contribute a majority of players that represented Canada at the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups, including Canadian rugby legends from across Canada such as Women’s Sevens national team coach, John Tait, from Orangeville, Ontario, who in addition to representing Canada internationally played for the Cardiff Blues and CA Brive; Jamie Cudmore from Winnipeg, Manitoba and Squamish, British Columbia, who represented Canada in four Rugby World Cups (2003, 2007, 2011, 2015) and recently retired from playing in the Top 14 in France.
So will the Pacific Pride return in 2026-27 to the BC Premier? Will the concept be abandoned completely, or will it be modified to fit another purpose, perhaps focusing on the men’s World Cup in 2027? The news of the Pacific Pride’s return was made official on April 24th, 2019, I’m guessing we’ll hear before that date, seven years later, the result of Rugby Canada’s review.
When I was National Men’s Coach I said “ No one in my lifetime , from Regina ,
will play for CANADA”. An exaggeration., I knew, but I was trying to stop the CRU
asking me to view games in provinces other than BC / Ontario to view players someone
thought should play for Canada . The level of competition was awful ! Think about a
BC Div 3 game Kats vs Beavers.
I had played for and coached the BC Reps so knew the Canadian Rugby Landscape .
I did not envision the creation of the CCSD ( now Pacific Pride ).
That was and still is a solution to improving Canadian Rugby on the World stage !
You do need the right people running the program. Selecting the best rugby athletes
in Canada and using the BC Premier League to develop them.
When David Clark and John MacMillan ran the program the Pride it reached it’s
potential. It’s about getting good coaches running the program .
Rugby Canada, you do not have that now. The Pride is a disaster !
Don’t cancel the program. Get new leadership involved.
One Man’s Opinion
HH Jono
Buddy, it’s not the 1990s any more
Thanks for this article Mark. It is all so frustrating. How quickly Rugby Canada forgets.
From the April 24, 2019 Rugby Canada release:
The new Pride was supposed to be for 18-24 year olds who were “one to three seasons away from playing senior international rugby.” It was never, not in its original run nor in 2019, intended to be a U20 program. The Premier league was an excellent league for an age balanced Pride to play in. But it is not suitable league for a team of 18 and 19 year olds.
The role of the new Pride program and how it would fit into various competitions including the BC Premier League was also clearly laid out by Rugby Canada: “In addition to a full slate of away matches in the BC Rugby Men’s Premier League, the intention is for the academy team to also play pre-season games against MLR teams in order for players to showcase themselves with a view to eventually graduating players into professional leagues. The Academy program is also designed to support the development of 7s, with consideration for select Academy players to train with the senior men’s 7’s team on a weekly basis.”
Allowing the Pride to wither on the vine is an affront to all Canadian rugby fans who lobbied hard to get the Pride back on track. “We have heard consistently over the last few years from our rugby community about the importance and value an Academy program brought to our sport,” stated Rugby Canada Chairman Tim Powers.”
The BC Premier League is not the perfect breeding ground for professional/international players. But, with the contraction of MLR opportunities it is one of the best available to Canadian players.
The original Pride under David Clark brought a level of professionalism to the Premier League as a whole. Arguably, the new version was on its way to doing the same (the Pride won or almost won the Coastal Cup in 2022 and was certainly competitive in those post pandemic years).
Why Rugby Canada could not just focus on maintaining a successful formula – a rugby program for top 18-24 year old athletes that competes in a full slate of away games in the BC Premier League etc. – is baffling. There was no need to tinker.
When development/professional opportunities outside of Rugby Canada’s control (MLR) are dying, Rugby Canada needs to redouble its efforts on what it can control.
If the Pride dies again, what development/professional structure will exist for Canadian rugby athletes?
I generally take your point, but there are numerous 18 and 19-year-olds playing Premier rugby at UBC and Uvic.
Totally, but no UVIC or UBC Prem team is made up of only 18 and 19 year olds. The Pride aren’t there yet either but the concern amongst some is they are moving that way. Hopefully that is incorrect. Cheers
No doubt the Pride didn’t have a great season, but one year’s standings shouldn’t be such a critical factor in deciding an entire programme’s future (after all, they were in 2nd place overall this time last year [with the same coach and a lot of the same players]).
In the few games I saw, their inexperience was often a factor (scrums, for example, where craftier, older opponents drew them into costly penalties). But isn’t gaining this sort of experience exactly what a development academy is for?
In addition, many of the current Pride players are already playing on the Canadian Mens 7s. Isn’t that a sign of success.
None of which is to say that an overhaul isn’t warranted, but eliminating the programme seems overly harsh. And when Canada is playing in the next RWC (and likely the next one too–hosted in the US). And when MLR is making it harder for Canadian boys to get experience. This seems like a crazy time to step back.
Rugby Canada needs to ask itself some tough questions about the entire way Rugby is being developed. We have among the world’s best womens teams (the U21 recent trip to the UK is deserving of enormous praise). Can RC not do a better job of developing/promoting the game? Killing a programme isn’t going to do it. But what will?
Thanks Mark,
Rugby Canada is incredibly frustrating to support right now. As supporters, we don’t have any meaningful way to express our concerns to the board or the organization, and that lack of voice is discouraging.
After years of underperformance and what feels like a lack of respect for Canadian coaches, I’ve reached a point where the only real option left for me is to step away. I’ve decided to stop attending Rugby Canada events—whether that’s test matches (men’s or women’s), locally or away, as well as the Vancouver 7s( which already appears to be seeing declining attendance). Even watching RC play on TV just doesn’t feel worth the time when there’s better rugby available.
I’ve made plans around the World Cup already, but I won’t be spending time or money to travel and watch the Canadian men play, it’s just not worth it. When money matters, it’s hard to justify putting it toward watching an organization that continues to underperform seemingly without any accountability.
Something needs to change, though it’s hard to feel confident that it will.
Sour old supporter
I respect all of the opinions presented. I look at the situation in a very pragmatic way.
What is the goal of the Pride? Provide a pathway gap between junior to senior rugby for players with elite potential? There maybe ancillary benefits but the key is to articulate the goal. Then you can decide whether that goal is appropriate. Depending on your goal this will dictate the strategy to achieve this goal. For example, if you want it as more of a centralized program then this is quite different. My own amateur view is that having generally a younger squad is a good approach to provide that link between age grade rugby and senior rugby. The notion of the record of the Pride in the Prems is not really all that relevant. You took the coach and key players and put them in the 7s. What could you expect? Multiple goals? If you develop two or three players a year that move into the Canada longlist then it should be viewed as successful in my opinion. I have watched some of their games and there is some talent. What is the alternative for up-and-coming players who aren’t in the major university programs?