The three BC universities took the top 3 spots in the first tournament of the three tournament CanWest series. The big surprise was TWU edging UVic for second spot as they won the head to head 12-5. UBC were the dominant team in the tournament going undefeated. Adia Pye of UBC was the leading try scorer with 8 tries, scoring at least one try in each of UBC’s matches.
This is a rugby wrapup for the weekend of January 18th 2025. The BC Rugby leagues resume next weekend in most divisions except Premier which is February 1st. UBC toured down to Washington State for an exhibition match. The PWR, Premiership Women’s Rugby, in the UK wrapped up Round 14 with 16 Canadians in action. We have more details on those below. Coming up on the horizon is the Six Nations, and yes for members, we will putting them up for download, as we have since 2016. The Six Nations schedule is posted below.
I received a nice note from Ian Smith, one of the UVic Vikes rugby players who is also their fundraising lead. It’s about their Blood Drive initiative to support Canadian Blood Services while also supporting UVic sports through pledges. You can read the note below which has links to their pledge form and the Canadian Blood Services donor form. Last year over 60 student-athletes and friends donated blood and they reached 127 pledges, a number they hope to exceed this year.
This wasn’t an outcome anyone predicted. The first time a University outside of BC wins the national title and it’s an engineering school in Montreal, fairly unknown in the Canadian rugby world. ETS is on the rugby map now and they’re hosting the championship next year.
It was the first women’s rugby national title for a BC university and hence the first title for UBC. UVic are silver medalists for the second year in a row. After high scoring matches all week, the final was a defensive contest with only one try scored.
The UBCO Men’s rugby team made the Nationals for the first time, but the team must raise funds to get themselves there, as they are only minimally financially supported by the Athletics department. The trip will cost about $50k and the players will have to pay a portion of that so have reached out to the community in a fundraising effort.
Here is the link on the UBC website to donate to the UBC Okanagan Heat Men’s Rugby Fund
UBC, who have won all but one men’s University titles to date, have qualified as BC #1 already. UBC along with host University of Ottawa are the only teams confirmed at the time of writing. The BC #2 will be decided this weekend when UVic host TWU, UVic winning the first match by +4.
UBC and UVic will be representing Canada West at the University Championships starting next week. UBC claimed the CanWest title with a comprehensive 51-22 over UVic. The match report is appended below.
UBC will host the 2025 U Sports Women’s Rugby Championship, the media release is posted below. The 2024 championships are to be hosted by UPEI in Charlottetown, PEI from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3.
VANCOUVER – Once again it all came down to the final game of the weekend, but this time the UBC Thunderbirds claimed the glory and the top spot ahead of the University of Victoria Vikes at the second Canada West women’s rugby 7s series tournament of the year.