Rugby News from Around BC & The World- January 2026

From CanWest 7s to Six Nations Touching Down on U18 Tours, Rugby Camps, Ravens Women, Bayside Hosting, European Championship Round of 16, SVNS Series, Atlantic Privateers

We took a look around social media today to pick up rugby news of interest to the BC Rugby community. We found posts about the Ravens women’s program, the CanWest 7s series, U18 tours by Abbotsford and Thunder Rugby, Spring Break Camp by Vikes, Bayside Saturday and Sunday hosting, European Champions Cup Round of 16 and the Six Nations Schedule, SVNS Series Singapore, SVNS Vancouver Tickets, Atlantic Privateers roster vs Pacific Pride.

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Editorial – January 2026

How Many Rugby Clubs in BC? A Look at the Numbers and Comparing to the Province of Buenos Aires

How many rugby clubs are in BC? Sounds like an easy question but it depends on how you define a rugby club. This all started with a conversation with Les Cusworth, the former Director of Rugby of the Argentina Rugby Union, comparing the number of rugby clubs in the province of Buenos Aires with the number of rugby clubs in the province of British Columbia. Simple right, maybe. If you start with wiki, it will tell you 65 rugby clubs for BC and “76 clubs directly affiliated and 15 competing as guests” so 91 altogether for Buenos Aires. The information is dated, Les says there are over 100 clubs now in Buenos Aires. The BCRU states it has “66 registered community rugby clubs across BC” in its recent documents, that number matches with the 2025 AGM Voting Allocations for Voting Members document. How does that number of 66 correlate with number of clubs we see in the league structure, Premier, Div 1, Div 2, Div 3 for men and women which is 31? It depends how you define rugby club.

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Canadian Rugby Foundation Updates – January 2026

Canadian Rugby Foundation Assets to Reach $30M by June with Additional Funds from Fletcher’s Field Limited (FFL)

The Canadian Rugby Foundation currently has about $27M invested in the future of Canadian rugby and that will rise to over $30M with additional funds from Fletcher’s Field Limited. The Foundation made over $1M in fund distributions in 2024, they have over 90 funds, mostly club funds, and the funds receive annual interest payments. The Foundation also has an Unrestricted Fund which supports initiatives such as the University Men’s Rugby Championship and the CRF University Coaches Awards which sends coaches to the Crusaders Global Academy in Christchurch. This year initiatives like the BC vs Ontario Men’s summer series, the BC v Alberta Women’s series,  the Ontario v Quebec Women’s series will be funded by the CRF. Last year Rugby Canada thanked the CRF for the “more than $300,000 in support directly to Rugby Canada programs, including a large contribution from the Monty Heald Senior National Women’s Fund to the Mission: Win Rugby World Cup campaign.”

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SVNS 3 Tournament – January 2026

Canada Win SVNS 3 in Dubai: Advance to SVNS 2 in Feb/March

As the announcer mentioned Canada came a shoe lace away from not making the final two but a heroic game saving tackle by Thomas Isherwood was the difference between going home disappointed and going home as champions. It was the final play of the semi-final, Hong Kong looked as if they had crossed the line to win the match but the replay showed Isherwood’s tackle had forced the Hong Kong player’s foot into touch a fraction of a second before he touched the ball down. It was a game of milliseconds that made the difference. Isherwood then went on to score the winning try in extra time. The final against Belgium was anti-climatic but a win to claim the title was icing on the cake. Canada now enter the SVNS 2 series with tournaments in Nairobi (Feb 14-15), Montevideo (March 21-22), Sao Paulo (March 28-29). Canada and Belgium will be in the SVNS 2 along with Kenya, USA, Germany, Uruguay. The top four advance to the SVNS World Championship tournaments.

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BCRU logo 2024

BC Rugby Weekend of January 7th 2025

BC Rugby Season Resumes: No Premier but Div 1 to 3 Matches Plus Women’s Regional – Results Posted

The BC Premier resumes next weekend but there’s rugby action resuming in Div 1 to Div 3 plus the women’s regional competition is back with the Island hosting the Vancouver Thunderbirds. The current standings in all divisions are posted here. In men’s Div 1 the Rowers maintained their unbeaten record, narrowly defeating the Ravens. In men’s Div 2 Kelowna continued to roll and remain undefeated. In women’s regional rugby it was a lopsided result with a triple digit score differential.

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Canada Women’s 7s – January 2026 Updates

Canada Announce Women’s 7s Team for Singapore and Perth Tournaments

Coach Jocelyn Barrieau has selected 14 players to travel to Singapore and Perth for the two back to back tournaments starting at the end of this month. The surprise is seeing some of the PWR players returning to the squad, Olivia Apps, Fancy Bermudez, Sabrina Poulin, Alysha Corrigan, Gabrielle Senft. Also former Exeter player Taylor Perry is back on the 7s squad. Missing from the first two tournaments are Charity Williams (injured), Pam Buisa and Asia-Hogan Rochester (PWR), Carmen Izyk, Adia Pye, Monique Coffey, Ivy Poetker. NOTE: The original Rugby Canada media release had Rachel Smith in the roster, the updated media release has Larah Wright in the roster instead. 

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Pacific Pride Roster – Spring 2026

Seven New Forwards and Five New Backs Added to Pacific Pride 2026 Spring Roster

The Pride haven’t exactly been setting the rugby world on fire with their 2025 fall results, a 0-4 record in the BC Premier and a loss to the visiting Chicago Hounds Academy side. One area they need reinforcements is in the forwards, particularly the tight five, and most notably at the prop position where they have had to borrow players on occasion. They have 7 new forwards coming in and 5 backs. The most notable name in the forwards is probably UVic’s Jordy Auger (hooker) and in the backs Jacob Ince (centre) from the uni champions, Guelph Gryphons.

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BCRU logo 2024

BC Rugby Standings – January 2026

BC Rugby Season Resumes This Weekend: A Look at the Standings in All Divisions

The BC Rugby leagues resume this weekend, except for the Premier which restarts the following weekend, January 24th. We look at some of the races in the Div 1 to Div 3 space. In Men’s Div 1 the Vancouver Rowing Club are undefeated with 3 Island clubs in close pursuit, UVic, Westshore and Nanaimo. There was some talk of VRC returning to the Premier next season and a top Div 1 finish would back their claim. Langley who also have declared their intention of going up to Premier next season are in 12th place and will need to refocus in the 2nd half of the season. This weekend the Rowers host the winless Ravens, Langley host Capilano, UVic host Comox and Abby host Lomas.

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Coral Coast Fiji 7s 2026

Coral Coast Fiji 7s Kicks Off January 15th: One Canadian Team Entered

The Coral Coast 7s may be one of the top international 7s tournaments outside the World Rugby SVNS series. It’s based in Fiji and this year there are top teams from Fiji, NZ, Australia, Japan, GB and USA. There’s one team from BC, the Pacific Warriors, who are mostly a Fijian-Canadian team. They won all the major 7s summer tournaments in BC in 2025, the Bayside 7s, the Bula 7s and the Westshore 7s. They’ll be in tough competition in Fiji however, they’re in a pool (Pool F) with two Fijian teams and an Australian Fijian team. Highlighting Pool A are the Fijian Babas, Pool B NZ Development, Pool C the USA 7s team, Pool D Aussie Selects and Pool E Japan SDS. Mike Friday has a Select 7s team that has an all star roster, that includes Terry Kennedy, Harry McNulty and Jordan Conroy from Ireland, Perry Baker from USA, Luke Treharne from Wales and a host of top Fijian players including Jerry Tuwai. We’ll try to get the Pacific Warriors roster to add to this article.

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European Champions and Challenge Cup Updates

Updates on the European Champions and Challenge Cup with One Pool Round Remaining

There’s one more pool round in the European Champions and Challenge Cup before the Round of 16 starts in April. We’ll be especially watching Castres (Tyler Ardron) and Montpellier (Tyler Duguid). Castres are in the Champions Cup but sit at the bottom of their pool, they’ll need a win in Munster next weekend to have a chance of a top 4 finish and advancement to the Round of 16. If they finish 5th they drop to the Challenge Cup and if 6th, they’re out. Montpellier are in the Challenge Cup and top their pool, they play tomorrow (Sunday) and have a good chance of remaining #1 seed in their pool.

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