The men’s Division 1 has 19 teams entered, the second team from the 11 Premier sides plus 8 other teams, Nanaimo, Comox, Cowichan, Port Alberni on the Island and Squamish, Langley, Kelowna, Abbotsford from the Mainland.
The men’s Premier schedule is here. During the season check the BCRU site for any last minute changes. We’ll also keep this post on the front page and updated with scores.
It feels like rugby season is almost here as the last 7s tournament of the summer wrapped up. The UVic Vikes won the men’s title defeating Pacific Warriors in the final. The Warriors had won all the mainland titles this year (SFU 7s, Bayside 7s) but weren’t able to add the Westshore 7s to their trophy case. Along the way UVic defeated hosts Westshore. UVic had two teams entered and it was a chance to see some of the emerging talent in their XVs program this season. In the U18 divisions it was Thunder and Thunder winning both boys and girls titles. The program had just wrapped up a week long camp at Shawnigan Lake school and it looks like the program has some emerging talent. This group will form the core of their next NZ tour. Westshore won the U16 girls title.
Canadian Match Officials Julianne Zussman (Referee), Emma Gallagher (Referee, Assistant Referee), Kristine Lovatt (Assistant Referee) and Cam Russell (FPRO, TMO) have been appointed to the 2026 WXV Global Series & Global Series Challenger matches taking place this September and October. The WXV series is for the top tier nations, the WXV Challenger is for upcoming nations. Julianne Zussman has been selected to referee two of the WXV matches, and Emma Gallagher one of the WXV Challenger matches. The match schedules involving Canadian officials are listed below, also the World Rugby profile for Julianne Zussman is posted below.
The women’s Premier starts September 26th. There are six core teams plus Seattle who play an exhibition schedule, they visit each of the core teams once during the season. The six core teams play a triple round robin with 3 games against each opponent. That works out to 45 matches plus the six exhibition matches for a 51 match schedule over 18 rounds.
This is a summary/preview article of what’s happening this week and next month of interest to rugby followers in BC. This week/weekend it’s the Westshore 7s and the Canada U20 vs TWU match. Next month Canada men and women have 3 matches each, the men in Japan and the women in Europe. The BC Premier starts in a few weeks and we look at the implications with the Pacific Pride MIA.
The Howlers wrapped up their tour this weekend, 1 win and 2 losses, but the scope is much larger than the results on the field. The benefits to the young players and in a year or so, to the Canada U20 program, will be significant. Also the rugby contacts made with Argentine and Buenos Aires rugby administrators and players will pay dividends down the road. Kudos to the Howlers, Karl Fix, the supporters and most importantly the players for taking on this gruelling tour to one of the bastions of amateur rugby. Also a shout out to the man in Argentina who helped put this together, Les Cusworth.
The BCRU haven’t posted the full 2026-27 schedule yet as they adapt to the new PlayHQ system which drives their website and schedule system. If you look at their website, at the time of writing, it looks to be in transition. They have announced the key dates, the season starts September 12th. It looks to be a 21 game week schedule, 11 game weeks in the fall, and then 10 game weeks in the spring, plus playoffs in April/May. The winter break goes from December 12th to January 16th. There’s no rep rugby, aka McKechnie Cup, in the schedule for the men but the women will have a 5 game rep season, Blue v Gold, or Island v Mainland. That’s in cooperation with the national women’s program and head coach Kevin Rouet.
Rugby Canada announced the attendees at the rugby camp at Shawnigan Lake that has been running since August 8th. There are 43 players attending and 30 will be selected for the trip to Chile in October. There’s no mention yet of a squad match at the end of the camp.
The Youth Olympics first started in 2010, it’s focused on U18 athletes. Rugby 7s was introduced in 2014 in China and continued on in Argentina in 2018. The 2022 Youth Olympics were scrubbed due to COVID disruptions and now Senegal are hosting in 2026. Canada have won medals in 2014 and 2018, both by the women’s U18 team, Silver in China and Bronze in Argentina. This is the first time the Canadian U18 men have been entered in the Youth Olympics Rugby 7s. The Canadian women are not entered, the USA women are the only entry from the Americas region.
The Terrace Northmen defeated Elk Valley 14-5 in the Saratoga Cup final to win the 2026 title. In the women’s 7s tournament there was an upset as the undefeated Yeti Rugby Club fell to Rocky Mountain Rogues, 15-12, a team they had defeated 31-5 on Day 1. The Day 2 video is linked below.