A Review of 2025 from April to June: BC Club Finals, Pacific Four Series, Challenger 7s Series, High School Finals, U20 Men in Oceania Tournament, World Rugby 7s Final, MLR Final

The period from April to June saw the BC Club leagues wrap up with the Ravens winning the men’s Premier, Thunderbirds the women’s. The national women started their Pacific Four series in the USA, they would defeat USA and Australia and draw with NZ. The men’s 7s team were in the Challenger 7s series and finished top four winning admission to the World Rugby 7s Final in LA. Unfortunately they didn’t finish top 4 there and have to start back at the RAN 7s and SVNS 3. The women won Bronze in LA. The BC high school finals took place with St. George’s winning the top competition for boys, G.P. Vanier for girls. The U20 men did exceptionally well in the Oceania U20 tournament, defeating Samoa and Tonga but losing to eventual winner, Fiji. New England with 7 Canadians won the MLR title in June.

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A Review of 2025 from January to March: U18, MLR, BC Rugby Season, Men’s and Women’s 7s, U20, High School, University, Pacific Pride, Editorials

We posted over 300 articles last year and we’ll go through some of the key ones from January to March. We’ve highlighted 21 articles that give a quick overview of the first quarter of the season, starting with U18, to MLR, BC Rugby season, men’s and women’s 7s, U20, high school, university, Pacific Pride, guest posts and Rugby Canada shenanigans at the admin level.

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It’s that time of year, time to take a rest, rejuvenate, enjoy friends and family and put rugby on the back burner for a day or two. We’ll be back on December 26th to start our review of the year’s highlights and look at what’s coming for 2026.

So Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice whatever name you put to the end of year celebrations. See you in a couple of days to review the year and look ahead to the new year.

Mark
Editor BCRN

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What’s Happening with BCRU Board? Two Recent Resignations;  Hall of Fame Nominees Not Ratified and HoF Event Cancelled

The recent media release from the BCRU (see below) was short and to the point, Board President Andy Margolis was resigning. I received a message from a long time member of the BC Rugby community shortly after, “Can’t believe the guy quit or was relieved after three months [ed. more like 5 months], I have a hard time accepting someone of his calibre changes his mind about the state of rugby in BC in just three months. Any hard hitting journalism about the BCRU coming out?” I was being called out, probably the only person resembling a rugby journalist in BC nowadays, what’s Patrick Johnston doing these days, and Dan Fumano, they’re real journalists but they have real jobs as well. OK, I’ll spill my guts and tell you what I know.

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BCRU Offers Invitation to “Develop Your Game in BC” this Winter, RC Starts “Task Force” on University Rugby

There were a couple of media releases last week that caught my eye, the first was the BCRU official invitation to players from across Canada to come west to play in the BC leagues this winter. I like it, it’s a no brainer for me. When we had national team coaches who were immersed in Canadian rugby, it was a given, they recognized it was the only place in Canada to play rugby in the winter. They would encourage players to move west. Now that we have coaches on the men’s side that have no background in Canadian rugby, the BCRU have to state the obvious. The last Canadian coach of the men’s program was Ric Suggitt in 2008, it’s crazy, 17 years since we’ve had a Canadian at the helm of the men’s program. The BCRU media release is posted below, hopefully we’ll see some results. A lot will depend on what happens with the MLR and where players who don’t pick up contracts will go. The national team coach will have an impact based on the message he’s sending to players.

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From BC Premier to UFC; BC Premier Week 2 Photographers; Docuseries on Women’s Rugby Team

A few items on the Editor’s Desk this Sunday. Michelle Montague from rugby to MMA professional, the photographers who shoot in the BC Premier and a docuseries on the women’s XVs team set to be released in 2026.

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Andrew Quattrin Signs in Pro D2 France; Super Rugby Schedule Announced; BC University Tours and Nationals Qualification Schedule; Curry Hitchborn Named Capilano Director of Rugby

A few stories of interest as we wait for the men’s and women’s national team rosters to be announced on Thursday/Friday. As a reminder it’s Canada v Japan men at 1am PT on TSN and Canada v Wales women at 4am PT. Hopefully TSN will have both matches in their Games on Demand archive on Saturday.

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Thunder Indigenous Rugby in NZ Claim First Wins; Junior PanAm 7s Kicks Off Saturday; World Rugby Introduces New Concussion Mouthguard for Women’s World Cup

A few news items for Thursday, the Thunder Indigenous Rugby program is in NZ, playing their final match in Wellington as this goes to press. They notched up their first wins in NZ earlier in the week, so congrats to them. The Junior PanAm 7s kick off on Saturday for the U20 women and World Rugby is introducing a new concussion mouthguard for the Women’s Rugby World Cup, details and links below.

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MLR Down to 8 with Miami Leaving, BC U17 Camp Update, Tragically Hip Get on Board with Women’s Fundraising

A few news items from midweek, MLR purportedly down to 8 teams with Miami the latest casualty. The BC U17 camp is on and the first games played, the women defeated Alberta and the men lost a game to a UK touring team. The Tragically Hip have jumped on the Women’s World Cup fundraising drive with a limited edition T-Shirt with proceeds to the women’s team.

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A Tale of Two Committees: Canada’s Women’s Rugby Triumph and Men’s Decline

I analyzed the July rankings for Canadian men and women XVs programs from 2004 to 2025. It tells a tale of two programs.

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