Front Runners: The Story of UBC Women’s Rugby by Solana Pasqual
This documentary on the UBC women’s rugby program starts with its history and an interview with Ruth Hellerud-Brown recounting her first involvement in 1991. It then moves through the years and culminates in the story of the national championships in 2024 and 2025 and interviews with the current players. On the coaching side there are interviews with Dean Murten, Jake Thiel and Maria Gallo. The timing of the video release is good as we’re just starting the 2026 championship cycle where UBC are currently ranked 5th, behind Queen’s, Guelph, Laval and UVic. Will there be another chapter to write in the story, we’ll find out in November.
The video is 53′ long and moves along at a good pace to keep the viewer engaged, there’s a variety of shots from player interviews, game footage, coach interviews, a look at clips of players in their youth, players interacting as teammates away from the pitch, and the historical footage when the program was struggling in its early years. I’d recommend it and, really, every program should endeavour to create something similar as a way to tell their story and record their history.
Front Runners Documentary
The BC Premier Angle
Although not referenced in the video, the story of the Vancouver Thunderbirds, the UBC team playing in the BC Premier is linked. The documentary notes UBC team have won back to back university championships in 2024 and 2025 but the growth of their program is illustrated in their dominance in the BC Premier where they have won 5 straight titles starting in 2022. Alberta teams dominated the CanWest tournament prior to 2019, in 2019 it was Calgary and UBC progressing but UBC lost in the first round. By 2021 both UBC and UVic had progressed but UBC were knocked out in the first round. 2022 was the same story but this time they lost by just one point to Guelph. In 2023 they lost by two points to eventual winner, Laval. In 2024 and 2025 they won, but looking at their BC Premier championship results from 2022 it was easy to see the program was on the move.
BC Premier Women’s Championship
2022
Vancouver Thunderbirds 43 – Castaway Wanderers 29
2023
Vancouver Thunderbirds 65 – Westshore RFC 10
2024
Vancouver Thunderbirds 38 – Westshore 22
2025
Vancouver Thunderbirds 43 – Westshore 17
2026
Vancouver Thunderbirds 38 – Westshore 17