A close game was expected between these two west side rivals, and it was that till the 20-minute mark. The Lomas controlled possession and scored early but the Ravens then reeled off 8 tries on the trot, four in each half, suggesting that their game may now be rounding into form.
UVic claimed the Canada West title with another narrow victory over UBC. UBC are current U SPORTS title holders and are hosting the U SPORTS rugby championship which starts later this month. UVic defeated UBC with a come from behind win, trailing by 6 points with 10 minutes remaining, they scored a try at the 74′ mark and made the important conversion to claim the Western title. The match report from CanWest is posted below.
It’s a relief from a Canadian perspective to announce the repechage tournament knowing Canada has already qualified for the 2027 World Cup. Canada didn’t even make the repechage tournament for the 2023 World Cup, and they had to win the repechage to make the 2019 World Cup. In that 2019 repechage tournament Canada defeated Germany, Hong Kong and Kenya to advance to the World Cup. This year Canada defeated USA to claim direct entry to the World Cup.
Some surprising scorelines on a cold, rainy weekend on the west coast. UBC look to be the on form team and sit top of the standings, the Ravens have started to find their form with some key player additions, Bays playing solid rugby and the Caps with the upset of the weekend.
It’s Week 4 of the men’s BC Premier and Week 2 of the women’s Premier. UBC sit top of the standings with a 3-1 record, they’ve played one more game than the rest of the league as they fit their home and away games against the Vikes in early as part of the University Qualification series. Westshore are the only team at 3-0 and those two teams meet to determine top spot. Burnaby are close behind with a 2-1-0 record having tied UBC in their first match.
The Rugby Americas North (RAN) 7s tournament returns to Trinidad for 2025. The tournament is part of the pathway the Canadian men must follow to get back on the World Rugby 7s Series. The tournament takes place November 21-23 in Arima, Trinidad. Canada is one of 8 countries vying to progress from the tournament to the next stage, Division 3. The winner of RAN 7s will progress to the 8 team Division 3 competition, and two teams from that tournament will progress to Division 2. The details of the Division 3 tournament haven’t been released yet.
This article began with research into the competition between the NZ Youth team and the Pacific Pride. I remember attending some of the matches at Centennial Stadium but it was before BCRN started publishing in 2004 so I don’t have any articles in the database. I thought wouldn’t it be great to revive that rivalry and give the Pride, aka Young Canada, aka the Rugby Canada Academy, a high level competition to highlight their season.
Rugby Canada has received some federal government money for Community Sport and they’re distributing it through several programs, the first is the Coaching in Schools initiative. They’ve committed to awarding 38 grants ranging from $1000 to $4500 for Coaching in Schools. The application form is here.
MacDowell Rugby is holding a talent ID session for two international tours to end the 2025 season. The ID session is this Friday at UVic’s Wallace Field, details and a registration link are below.
There was a bit of hand wringing by Canadian rugby fans and pundits last week when Major League Rugby announced that they “will take steps from the 2026 season to increase the game day spaces available to USA Rugby qualified and pathway players to a minimum of 16 and rising from there”. It appears Canadian players will have to compete as imports for one of the 7 non-USA roster spots in 2026, and that number may decrease in future years.
UBC confirmed their #1 ranking as they go 4-0 in the BC University qualifying series, TWU need a massive win next weekend against UVic to qualify for the nationals. Pacific Pride dominate in the Valley with a lopsided win. The Oakville Crusaders Junior program took a double from the Ravens on Friday and Ravens edged CW on Saturday.
There are no Premier games this Thanksgiving Weekend but there are two Premier level matches taking place this weekend plus the Oakville Crusaders Junior Program are on the Island for matches with the Ravens and CW.