BCRU Announces 2022 Hall of Fame Inductees: Ed Fairhurst, Bruce Kuklinski and Julia Sugawara
The BCRU announced the 2022 Inductees for the BC Rugby Hall of Fame, Ed Fairhurst, Bruce Kuklinski and Julia Sugawara. The BCRU are planning the event for June 2023, no specific date has been announced yet. They’ll be joined by the 2023 Inductees, that nomination process has been extended to March 31, 2023.
The BC Rugby Hall of Fame will no doubt be posting a comprehensive bio on each Inductee but here are some snippets from our database.
Ed Fairhurst
Ed was capped 57 times for Canada from 2001 to 2012 including 3 World Cups (2003, 2007, 2011). He first shows up in our articles in April 2004, he was playing for UVic in the Rounsefell Cup quarter-finals. In August 2004 he helped the Crimson Tide win their 4th RCSL championship. He represented Canada at the 2005 7s World Cup. Ed was a SMUS graduate and played for the SMUS XV in the their Centennial match versus Canada, that was 2006. In June 2007 Canada played the NZ U21 team in NZ and won 16-13, Ed was the starting scrum half. In 2009 he was battling with Sean White for the starting scrum half position for the BC Bears. By 2010 he had moved to Vancouver and was playing for the UBCOB Ravens in the BC Premier. Ed was the starting scrum-half for BC in 2009 when BC defeated Russia, he was listed (CW/UVic) at that time. One story from the 2011 World Cup is on the lighter side, he made the “New Zealand Womens Weekly Top Ten Hunks List”, the article was run in the NZ Herald as part of their World Cup coverage. Memo: have to find out who is MCing the Hall of Fame event in June, this might be worth a mention 😉
Ed Fairhurst at the 2011 World Cup
Bruce Kuklinski
Bruce began refereeing in 1990, having played for 20 years between time in New Zealand and for the UVic Vikes, becoming a Rugby Canada National Panel Referee in 1995. He officiated a number of 15 aside internationals and fourteen international 7s tournaments, and was named BC Rugby Match Official of the year in 2007 and 2013 and the Rugby Canada Match Official of Year in 2013. He also co-coached the BC U19 Mens side to three National Championships 1993-1995. Bruce was the Citing Commissioner for the 2015 World Cup. Bruce first shows up in our articles in 2006, he was one of the match officials for that centennary SMUS XV vs Canada along with Ian Hyde-Lay and Peter Tongue. He also wrote some articles on BCRN featuring referees, this was one from 2011 on Sherry Trumbull and David Smortchevsky. Bruce was an internationally recognized referee, an article from 2014 shows him in Mexico in the role of Citing Commissioner at the Central American and Caribbean Games. In 2015 he was named as a Citing Commissioner for the 2015 World Cup.
Bruce Kuklinski with Robin MacDowell at the Central American and Caribbean Games (2014)
Julia Sugawara
Julia represented Canada at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups. Julia first shows up in our articles in 2006 when she was named BCRN woman of the match in Burnaby’s 27-10 win over United to claim the women’s BC Premier title. In 2009 Meghan “Mooch” Mutrie wrote some articles covering the National Women’s League, Julia was scrum-half for BC and had just returned from the UK where she had played a season with the Saracens. In 2012 she was leading Burnaby into the Premier final against Velox, she also was the starting #10 for Canada West in the national team intersquad match. She was selected for the 2013 Canada XVs tour to the UK and France as a non-travelling reserve and in 2014 made the Canada XVs squad for the CanAm tournament. She was on the Silver Medal winning Canada team at the 2014 World Cup.
Julia Sugawara being presented BCRN woman of the match by Lisa Cooper (2006)
from BCRU
BC Rugby is proud to announce the 2022 Inductees to the BC Rugby Hall of Fame, while nominations for the 2023 BC Rugby Hall of Fame have been extended.
Three 2022 Inductees include a highly decorated BC Rugby Official with decades of experience both for BC and World Rugby, a former Mens National Sevens and XVs player who featured at three Rugby World Cups, and a former Womens National player who represented Canada for over 13 years and won silver at the 2014 Rugby World Cup. We invite you to join us in congratulating the 2022 BC Rugby Hall of Fame Inductees:
Ed Fairhurst Player
Bruce Kuklinski Builder
Julia Sugawara Player
2023 BC Rugby Hall of Fame Nominations Extended
The BC Rugby Hall of Fame was established in 2005 to honour individuals and teams who, through their commitment to excellence, left a profound legacy on the development of Rugby in British Columbia. Since then, 49 individuals and two teams have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The 2022 Inductees will be celebrated at the 2023 BC Rugby Hall of Fame Ceremony, slated for June 2023, alongside the 2023 Inductees. This will mark the first BC Rugby Hall of Fame Event since 2020. There was no ceremony in 2021 due to the global pandemic.
Nominations have been extended for the 2023 BC Rugby Hall of Fame. Nominations for induction into the BC Rugby Hall of Fame Class of 2023 will be accepted until 11:59pm on Friday, March 31, 2023, before being presented to the BC Rugby Hall of Fame Selection Committee for deliberation.
Being inducted into the BC Rugby Hall of Fame is a prestigious honor and all nominations require serious deliberation by the BC Rugby Hall of Fame Committee. Any registered participant, Club Member or Executive Member of BC Rugby can nominate an individual for selection into the BC Rugby Hall of Fame by completing the nomination form below.
Nominations can be made under three categories: Player, Team and Builder. To learn more about the nomination process and to view all past inductees, visit the BC Rugby Hall of Fame page.