MLR Updates – October 2025

Major League Rugby Announces Focus on USA Rugby Qualified Players: What That Means for Canadian Rugby

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.

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BC Rugby Weekend of October 11th 2025

University Qualifier UBC Defeat TWU, Exhibition Match Valley Venom Crushed by Pacific Pride, Oakville Crusaders Junior Program on Island for Matches v Ravens and CW Taste Victory

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.

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Regional Rugby Updates – October 2025

BCRU Revives Ruth Hellerud-Brown Regional Competition – Where’s the McKechnie Cup?

The BCRU has revived the regional competition for women this year, the Ruth Hellerud-Brown Cup. It will replace the Blue-Gold Series that was held in the spring. The RHB Cup will be an in-season competition unlike the Blue-Gold Series which took place out of season in May/June. The competition will run over four weekends from November to March during bye and make-up weekends, Nov 8th, Dec 6th, Feb 14th, March 14th. It raises questions about the status of the men’s regional competition, the McKechnie Cup.

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Photo Gallery from October 4th Rugby

A Selection of Match Photos from the October 4th Weekend

We have some great photographers in BC who post on social media, mostly Instagram and Facebook. We feature 6 this weekend. If you know of other photographers on social media who cover rugby, send us the link to their account, either in the comments below or email editor@bcrugbynews.com

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UBCOB Ravens

UBCOB Ravens – October 2025

Ravens Defend the Middle Ravens 24 – Caps 20: Report by Peter MacDonald

After two early season losses the Ravens looked like world beaters for the first 20 minutes of this game hopefully bringing a smile to Coach Taylor’s face. Constant possession, long uninterrupted phases of play with quick hands and lots of support led to two tries by the quarter. Wing Cole Keffer scooped up a blocked Caps kick, looked to pass but when a Caps player shot the gap he headed straight north on a hard cut and Joe Locke from Ethan Berry dotted down. A strong run from #10 Andrew Coe put Hamish Janes in at 20 minutes capping the early dominance and bringing the score to 12-0.

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University Championship Updates – October 2025

UBC Ranked #1 in Men’s University, Queen’s Ranked #1 in Women’s University – Overview and Rankings

Both the men’s and women’s University championship are on the horizon. The women are first with UBC hosting the championship between October 29th and November 2nd. They are defending champions but have been beaten twice by UVic in the CanWest conference. They currently sit in 5th place in the national rankings, UVic are ranked 3rd with Queen’s and Laval sitting at #1 and #2.

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BC Rugby Weekend of October 4th 2025

BC Premier Week 3 Results: Westshore Topple Bays; Burnaby Defeat Meraloma; Capilano Fall at Ravens; Vikes Lose to UBC – Exhibition Pride Outscore Seattle – Week 1 Women’s Premier Burnaby Stop Seattle, Meraloma Dominate CW

It’s Week 3 of the BC Premier and we see some big names returning to play in the Canadian Winter League, aka BC Premier. Just at #10 we have national team players Cooper Coats, Andrew Coe, Mark Balaski, Ethan Turner all starting this weekend. Lucas Rumball returns to the BC Premier after many seasons away, he’ll be starting as Ravens openside flanker.

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Canada Men’s XVs November Tour 2025

Rugby Canada Formally Announce Three November Tests Against Romania, Georgia, and Portugal

This was information already known to the rugby community but Rugby Canada have made it official with an announcement and some more details. Hopefully it will be a chance for some new players to get evaluated at the international level. The coach’s team selections will give some insight on whether his actions match his words, “also giving opportunities to a few players who weren’t part of the Pacific Nations Cup but could play a key role in our World Cup campaign”. We’ll also be keeping an eye on the assistant coaching situation for the November tour as we’ve heard some rumours about changes there.

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BC Premier 2025-26 – Week 3

Look Ahead to Week 3 of the BC Premier; Pacific Pride Play Exhibition vs Seattle; UBC v UVic National University Qualifier and Women’s Premier Season Kicks Off

There are four matches in the men’s Premier this weekend, Week 3. The UBC vs UVic Premier match is also a National University Qualifier and part of the Wightman Boot competition between the two universities. The Pacific Pride are playing an exhibition against Seattle. The women’s Premier kicks off with two matches, there was supposed to be three but the Ravens v Thunderbirds match has been marked as cancelled. The Ravens apparently haven’t been able to put together a women’s Premier team at the time of writing. We’ll have our predictions article out tomorrow when we have the rosters for the weekend. The current Week 2 standings are posted below.

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World Rugby Updates – October 2025

World Rugby Releases Details of RWC 2027 – Format, Draw Date, Ticket Sales

Now that Canada are back in the men’s World Cup there’s more interest in the details. This will be the first World Cup to have 24 teams, 6 pools of 4 teams and a knockout round of 16. The top 2 teams from each pool will advance to the round of 16 plus the 4 best 3rd place finishers. That means that some teams with only 1 win in the pool round may advance to the round of 16. The countries are placed in 4 bands depending on their ranking at draw time, Band 1 will be rankings 1 to 6, Band 2 are ranked 7 to 12, Band 3 are ranked 13 to 18 and Band 4 are ranked 19 to 24. Canada are ranked 24th and will be in Band 4.

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