Rugby Canada Updates June 2026

Canada Coach Stephen Meehan Given Contract Extension to End of 2028

Rugby Canada announced that Stephen Meehan will be given an extension on his contract until the end of 2028. It’s strange timing that has some rugby pundits questioning what’s happening behind the scenes. The official reason suggested in the Rugby Canada release is that he’ll oversee the men’s 7s journey to the 2028 LA Olympics. As the Rugby Canada release states, “subject to qualification”. The Olympics are in July 2028. Even though Canada men’s 7s program failed to qualify for the SVNS 1 series, they have a decent chance of making the Olympics since USA as host get an automatic spot and are taken out of the regional qualifying process.

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Premier Women’s Rugby – June 2026 – Round 17

Update on the English Premier Women’s Rugby (PWR) Round 17 – Eighteen Canadians in Action

There’s still one round of pool play left in the PWR but the top four team participating in the playoffs have already been determined, Gloucester, Saracens, Exeter, Trailfinders. The Canadian players who are not playoff bound have been released to the national 7s team this week. #1 Gloucester suffered their first defeat this weekend, to #4 Trailfinders, a team they may meet in the semi-finals. There were 18 Canadians in action in Round 17. Paige Farries scored a hat trick of tries in the Saracens win.

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EAAST 7s Tournament 2026

Canada NextGen Team Finishes 5th in 8 Team Tournament

Rugby Canada released their NextGen programming plan for 2026 in May and one of those tournaments was the EAAST tournament in Haguenau, France on May 29-30 for women’s 7s. Rugby Canada has been quiet on the results of that tournament on social media, and one reason may be is that the team placed 5th out of 8 teams that included Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, R10 (Barbarian team). All those teams finished ahead of Canada. Canada finished ahead Belgium, Georgia and Denmark. Both Czechia and Poland are on the SVNS 3 circuit, Germany aren’t even on the SVNS 3 circuit.

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BC Women’s Blue vs Gold

BC Gold Win Western Canadian Championship Series

It was a busy weekend of rugby in BC with the high school Provincials wrapping up, the national women’s 7s team at the HSBC SVNS tournament in Spain so the BC vs Alberta women’s XVs matches may have been overlooked a bit. Kudos to the BCRU for putting out a summary on Monday. Basically both the BC teams, Gold and Blue, won their matches against Alberta in convincing fashion. BC Gold, the Mainland, won the overall competition due to their win over BC Blue, the Island, in the first match. That result was a bit closer at 35-20.

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BC High School Provincial 7s 2026

Clarence Fulton Wins Boys 7s Title; Claremont Wins Girls 7s Title

It was schools from the Okanagan and the Island taking titles this year. Clarence Fulton from Vernon defeated Quw’utsun from Duncan, 12-10 to win the boys final. Claremont from Saanich won the girls final, defeating Langley 37-0.

Here are the final rankings of the top 8. The scores are on the BCSS results page and their YouTube channel has the videos archived.

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HSBC SVNS – Spain 2026

Canada Undefeated in Pool Play: Lose in Knock Out Round to Finish 4th

Canada did well in pool play going undefeated in four games but lost to USA in the semis and NZ in the 3rd/4th match to finish 4th in the tournament. That result puts them in a 4th/5th place tie with France in the Championship series with only Bordeaux left. USA are in 3rd, NZ 2nd and Australia in top place.

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High School Rugby Updates – May 2026

In Touch Newsletter by Phil Smith: Volume 2 Issue 11

This is Phil’s final newsletter of the year as the Provincials start this week and we’ll cover both the 7s and XVs in separate articles. Phil recaps the Island championship results and presents his 2026 Island All-Star selections.
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BC Bears vs Ontario Blues Match #2

BC Win 32-7 in Game #2 – 68-21 on Aggregate

BC claimed a 32-7 win in Game #2 for a 68-21 win on aggregate. BC came out strong scoring within the first five minutes and continued to add points throughout the match, Ontario got on the board in the last two minutes. The game notes are below. Showing well for BC were Cody Nhanala, probably the player of the series, Wes Black the surprise of the series (coming from a Div 1 club), Lockie Kratz who controlled both games, the McMullin brothers who are always solid. Brendyn Beck was also a player who deserves some attention from selectors and hopefully he gets invited to a Canada camp. Emerson Prior of course who was a mainstay of a strong BC front row. Don Carson was solid in the second row. Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

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