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BC Club Youth Rugby – October 2025 Updates

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A Look at the BC Club U16 & U18 Competitions with 3 Weeks Left in Regular Season

The BC club youth regular season goes to November 16th, the quarter-finals are November 23, semi-finals on the 30th and then the Island v Mainland finals will take place on December 7th at the Langley Events Centre.

Some of last year’s winners look well placed for a return to the championship. In boys U18 last year it was CW over Ravens for the title and this year both teams look on track for a repeat matchup, Abbotsford on the mainland will be the Ravens biggest threat and on the Island both Salish and Cowichan are chasing CW. At the boys U16 level last year it was Abbotsford taking down CW for the title but this year it looks like James Bay are the leading Island team and Capilano and Ravens are leading on the mainland.

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Canada Men’s XV – November Tour 2025

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Canada Announce 33 Players for November Tour – Coaching Changes, New Players, 13 BC Premier Players on Tour

Coach Stephen Meehan has named 33 players for the November tour to Europe to play Romania, Georgia and Portugal. A few early observations, Phil Mack isn’t mentioned in the coaching staff which seems to confirm rumours there was some falling out with Stephen Meehan and he’s not part of the coaching staff anymore. We’ve reached out to several sources for confirmation. The coaches are listed as forwards coach Anthony Mathison, the fellow Australian who seems to be Meehan’s right hand man, Graeme Moffat skills coach who is the head coach at the University of Lethbridge, and Callum Gibbins who is now listed as defence coach. Gibbins currently seems to be the head coach of the Conestoga Condors, a college in Kitchener, Ontario. He was previously a high level player from NZ, most recently playing with Old Glory in the MLR.

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From the Editor’s Desk – October 2025

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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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BC Rugby Weekend of October 25th 2025

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BC Premier Week 5 Results: UBC Vanquish Burnaby; Caps Top CW; Lomas Fall to Bays; Ravens Soar Past Vikes  – Women’s Premier Westshore Defeat CW; Burnaby Edge UBC

It’s Week 5 of the BC Premier with 4 matches, Westshore and Pride have a bye and are playing a friendly on Friday evening at Starlight Stadium. It’s Week 3 of the Women’s Premier with 2 matches on the slate. UBC remain the only undefeated side in men’s Premier, while Burnaby and Westshore top the women’s Premier.

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Premier Women’s Rugby – October 2025

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Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) Kicks Off in UK This Weekend: 23 Canadian Players on Rosters

There are 23 Canadian players on 7 teams in the English Premier Women’s Rugby (PWR) league. The largest contingent of players are on the Saracens and Trailfinders, both teams have 7 Canadians. Exeter have 4,  Loughborough, Harlequins, Bristol all have 1. Teams without Canadians are Leicester, Sale [see update note below].

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Rugby Canada Job Opportunities

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Rugby Canada Start Search for New High Performance Director

Rugby Canada are looking for a High Performance Director to replace Stephen Aboud who went back to Italy. Aboud wasn’t a good fit for Canada, he knew little about the Canadian rugby infrastructure and the key people across the country he needed to work with. It was a big learning curve and in the end he returned to Italy where he had some success. The job transition from a country like Ireland or Italy where there is a layer of professional rugby to a nation like Canada where rugby is strictly amateur does not usually end well for either party. That’s not even going into the shock they have going from a small country where everything is a drive away to the geographical vastness of the Canadian rugby landscape.

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UBCOB Ravens

UBCOB Ravens – October 2025

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Ravens Climbing Table Ravens 52 – Lomas 19: Report by Peter MacDonald

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.

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CanWest Rugby 2025

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UVic Claim Canada West Conference Title; Carissa Norsten Named Player of the Year; UVic Coach Brittany Waters Named Coach of the Year

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.

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World Cup 2027 Repechage Tournament

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World Cup 2027 Repechage Tournament Schedule Announced: Samoa, Paraguay, Namibia, Belgium

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.

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BC Rugby Weekend of October 18th 2025

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BC Premier Week 4 Results: Bays Drop CW, Ravens Soar Past Lomas, UBC Demolish Westshore, Caps Top Burnaby – University Qualifier UVic Edge TWU – Week 2 Women’s Premier Westshore Defeat Abby, UBC Outlast Seattle

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.

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