The Armistice, an agreement to end the fighting of the First World War as a prelude to peace negotiations, began at 11am on 11 November 1918. That was the history behind Armistice or Remembrance Day. “At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month – we will remember them”. We take a look at how rugby in Victoria was part of the Remembrance Day events in the years after World War II and as recent as 1987.
The Canadian Classics wrapped up their tournament with a 37-15 win over USA. They finished the tournament with a 2-1 record, defeating the Lions and USA, and only losing to eventual winner Argentina. The match video and roster is posted below.
It was pretty much the game expected by most pundits when the 21st ranked team hosted the 24th ranked team. There wasn’t much backline brilliance and the Romanian scrum dominated the match. The first 12 points from Romania came from the boot with infractions by Canada inside their own half, one at the breakdown, one at the lineout and two at the scrum. It was actually Canada and Mason Flesch who scored the first try, 12-7 at the half.
There’s a good mix of talent in the training squads announced for both the men and women. The camp started November 6th and the men’s squad will be preparing for the RAN 7s tournament in Trinidad starting November 21st, the women’s squad will be preparing for the SVNS series in Dubai starting November 29th.
Utah Warriors announced they are ceasing operations for the upcoming MLR season, that leaves 6 teams remaining from the 11 that competed in 2025. The future of the league looks to be on shaky ground.
The concern from Canada is how that will affect Canadian players, they were already impacted by the announcement earlier by MLR that imports would be limited on teams in 2026 and for the first time Canadian players would be counted as imports. The reduced opportunities to play professional rugby have taken another hit.
There were 13 Canadian players in action in the English PWR over the weekend. Sophie de Goede and Gabrielle Senft were missing from the Saracens rosters but Exeter used all their 5 Canadians with Alexandra Tessier getting the starting fullback role. Fancy Bermudez was in the reserves for Loughborough. Saracens had four Canadians starting Corrigan, Omokhuale, Royer, Apps with Farries in the reserves. Sara Svoboda for Harlequins and Holly Phillips for Bristol both got starting roles. Ealing with 7 Canadians had a bye week. Gloucester and Bristol are the only undefeated teams early in the season.
UBC repeat as U SPORTS champions with a last minute win over UVic. UVic went up 3-0 in the first quarter on a penalty kick, UBC scored the first try set up by a strong run by prop Kiki Idowu and finished off by fullback Olivia Saraburu, 7-3 for UBC. UBC added a penalty in the second half to go up 10-3. UVic hit back with a halfback combination try, #9 Justine Blatt Janmaat with the line break and offload to #10 Ella O’Regan, 10-8 for UBC with 20 minutes left. UVic wing Eden Kilgour put UVic ahead with a try outside with 5 minutes left, 13-10 for UVic. UBC scored at the whistle, a try outside by wing Adia Pye, 15-13 UBC to end the match
It’s Week 6 in the 19 Week league, so about 1/3 through. Each team plays a home and away with the other 8 teams plus one home game against the Pride for 17 games in total per team, except the Pride. There’s no Premier rugby on Remembrance Day weekend, play resumes November 15th.
With young Kiwi referee Cole Northcote presiding on a cool but thankfully drying afternoon at Jericho U Vic had no sign of ferry legs and brought the heat early. A UVic forwards try at 5 minutes woke up the Ravens who answered with two tries of their own through their forwards and #9 Billy Wickham by the 15-minute mark, 14-7 Ravens. But then UVic took over the game, dominating territory and possession till the half.
The BC club youth regular season goes to November 16th, the quarter-finals are November 23, semi-finals on the 30th and then the Island v Mainland finals will take place on December 7th at the Langley Events Centre.
Some of last year’s winners look well placed for a return to the championship. In boys U18 last year it was CW over Ravens for the title and this year both teams look on track for a repeat matchup, Abbotsford on the mainland will be the Ravens biggest threat and on the Island both Salish and Cowichan are chasing CW. At the boys U16 level last year it was Abbotsford taking down CW for the title but this year it looks like James Bay are the leading Island team and Capilano and Ravens are leading on the mainland.