The Armistice, an agreement to end the fighting of the First World War as a prelude to peace negotiations, began at 11am on 11 November 1918. That was the history behind Armistice or Remembrance Day. “At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month – we will remember them”. We took a look at how rugby in Victoria was part of the Remembrance Day events in the years after World War II.
With Sunday’s game between Canada and Japan at BC Place we did some digging on previous matches between the two teams going back to 1932 and the first Canadian rugby tour to Japan.
ESPN Rugby was a great resource for finding historical information on Canadian Rugby. In 2021 they focused their attention on the Tier 1 nations and the historical information on Tier 2 countries like Canada has been getting harder to find.
In March 1954 the NZ All Blacks wrapped up a gruelling 36 match tour of the UK, Ireland, France and North America. By the time they reached BC they had played 31 matches and had 5 more to go, 3 of them in BC and 2 in California. They won the matches in BC handily, 39-3 against Victoria, 42-3 against UBC and 37-11 against the Mainland.
The 1932 tour wasn’t the first Canadian rugby tour but it was the first tour under the auspices of the Rugby Union of Canada, which was formed in 1929. The tour booklet makes mention of the 1902-1903 tour to the UK which was the first Canada tour, it also references the 1930 incoming Japan tour to BC which acted as a foundation for this 1932 tour.
Don Burgess was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, in the Builder category. He was well recognized for his contributions to rugby as a player, coach and inventor but it was his research and writing contributions that are highlighted in this article.
[Editor’s comments below]
This morning Jason D Beck, the BC Sports Hall of Fame Curator, posted an interesting story to Twitter.
September 26th – On This Day in BC Sport History: 1908
Vancouver hosts the first visit to BC of an international rugby side as the Anglo-Welsh Fifteen (later known as the British Lions) defeat the BC Reps 61-5 at Stanley Park’s Brockton Oval before 2500 spectators who were enthralled by what the newspapers described as the best display of rugby ever seen in BC. BC scored its only try right off the opening kickoff when the large number of Welsh immigrants in the crowd began singing the Welsh hymn ‘Land of my Fathers.’ As the Welsh players stood distracted by the emotion of the moment, the local side went down the field and scored a converted try for five points. The Anglo-Welsh responded by scoring 61 unanswered points.
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We got on the track of the Hong Kong 7s when we revisited this Rugby Street demo we had done in 2010. The show was hosted by James Buchanan and Meghan Mutrie and featured the Bowl win by the 2010 Canada 7s team. That got us thinking about the hardware that Canada have won at Hong Kong and who were the coaches over the years. Both topics we researched a bit below.
I was going to write a lengthy article on the McKechnie Cup history today but the hours ran out so I’ll post this article I wrote in 2016 and add to it later in the week. The article, although over 6 years old, has some relevance to today.
[ed. if you’re interested in the history of women’s rugby in Vancouver in the 70’s and 80’s check out this article by Dave Pearcey.]
written by John Langley
The last 20 years of Capilano Womens Rugby is quite a story. What a success story it has been! The Women have made the Capilano Club and their fans very proud. Also what a contribution our players have made to the success of the Canadian National Team. Placing three starters in Andrea Burk, Hilary Leith and Mandy Marchak on the Womens World Cup of Rugby Silver Medal winning Canada team and the Dream Team in 2014, was remarkable. This silver medal was the highest finish of any Canadian Rugby team, Women or Men, in International 15s competition and was an amazing feat.