Phil’s Volume 2 Issue 6 covers the incoming tour by French school Lycee Bellevue, the Island XVs rankings and the schedule for April. The newsletter is posted below.
Some important dates for high school rugby are as follows:
XV’s or 7’s Team Declaration Deadline: April 22nd, 2026
Zone Championships Completed: May 19th, 2026
2026 Rugby XVs & 7s Provincial Championships: May 27-30
Phil’s Volume 2 Issue 5 covers the Island’s XVs scene, the Island XVs rankings and the schedule for April. The newsletter is posted below.
Some important dates for high school rugby are as follows:
XV’s or 7’s Team Declaration Deadline: April 22nd, 2026
Zone Championships Completed: May 19th, 2026
2026 Rugby XVs & 7s Provincial Championships: May 27-30
Phil’s Volume 2 Issue 4 covers the Island’s XVs scene, the Island XVs rankings and the schedule for April. The newsletter is posted below.
Some important dates for high school rugby are as follows:
The BCRU have announced their Provincial coaches for the U17 and U19 teams heading to Ontario this summer. All four teams will head to Ontario from July 18-26. The U19 Men and Women will compete in the Canadian Rugby Championships. The U17 Boys and Girls will compete the O’Neill’s Challenge Cup which was started last year as a Ontario v BC competition at the U17 level. Also the regional PRCs will take place July 4th and 5th in Abbotsford for U15, U17, U19 regional teams.
The 3rd issue of Phil’s newsletter covering boys XVs rugby on Vancouver Island. In 7s last week GP Vanier claimed the Westshore Secondary 7s titles in senior boys, senior girls and junior girls. Cowichan’s Quw’utsun claimed the junior boys title. St. George’s junior XV are in Scotland/England during the spring break. Thunder Indigenous rugby are sending boys and girls U18 XVs teams to a tournament in Portugal. Robert Bateman is touring to NZ and Australia. Shawnigan is going to France. ADSS (Port Alberni) going to the UK. If you know of other youth teams touring during spring break, add them to the comments section.
GP Vanier from Courtenay made a statement in high school 7s winning 3 of the 4 titles at the Westshore Secondary 7s. They won the senior boys, senior girls and junior girls. Robin MacDowell’s rugby academy at Cowichan’s Quw’utsun high school won the junior boys title. Vanier senior boys came 2nd in the province last year in 7s with Belmont winning the provincial 7s title.
It’s the second issue of the In Touch newsletter by Phil Smith covering boys high school rugby on the Island. There’s a 7s tournament happening on Friday at Westshore for junior and senior high school teams, the Westshore Secondary 7s, action goes from 9am to 5pm. We’ll try to get hold of a schedule for a separate post. Phil’s In Touch newsletter is posted below.
It was the women carrying the banner for BC at the VSI with Fraser Valley East winning Gold in U16 and Fraser Valley West winning Bronze, well done to the Valley. In U18 women it was BC Gold making it to the final and defeating Ontario in the final at BC Place. The men fell short with the BC U18 men getting blanked in the medals, Vancouver Island Tide claimed Silver in U16, kudos to them. It’s good to recognize the successful coaches as well, BC Gold U18 women’s coach is Darcy Patterson assisted by Shalaya Valenzuela. The Fraser Valley East U16 girls’ coaches are Slade Rozell, Josh Olafsen, Lindsay Nicholson, all the players were from Abbotsford. The Fraser Valley West U16 girls’ coaches were Katherine Siemens and Kelly Shields, the players were from Langley and United. The U16 boys’ Tide coach was Eric Slade, the players were from CW and JBAA. The tournament scores are on the BCRU events page.
A sure sign of spring is Phil Smith’s In Touch rugby newsletter covering boys rugby on Vancouver Island. We encourage other educators/coaches to do similar for their regions, whether they be focused on boys or girls rugby or both. You can send your newsletter to editor@bcrugbynews.com
A few thoughts of my own reading Phil’s newsletter. Phil notes Quw’utsun (Cowichan) “has opted for sevens despite having a splendid 2025 XV season”. Indeed in 2025 they defeated Shawnigan Lake School in the regular season and were top ranked on Phil’s list at one point, apparently they’re going full out in XVs in the Juniors this year and doing 7s for the Seniors for one year. Another point, a reader sent me in the score for the Robert Bateman vs Shawnigan preseason match, won by Robert Bateman 22-17. Robert Bateman are touring to NZ and Australia this year, leaving next week. Also don’t count out Shawnigan, they lost to Quw’utsun last year in the regular season but ended up in the final, only losing to St. George’s. Looking forward to the upcoming high school rugby season.
I had a chance to talk to Jamie Cudmore briefly on Saturday as he was waiting in the Toronto airport to head back to France after spending the holiday season in Newfoundland. He’s a coach at the Nissa Rugby Academy in Nice, France. He was eager to talk about the two Canadian players at the Academy, Joe Kaufmann and Eliot Marschall. Both were part of the Canada U18 camps in 2024 and Kaufmann was on the Canada U20 team in 2025. We were talking about pathways and Jamie spoke about the need to get Canadian players into Tier 1 academies at an earlier age, in this case specifically academies in France. Jamie has worked in France for many years as an elite player and coach and has a deep understanding of the French system with many contacts. I mused that it would be good to have a pathway from Canadian academies to French academies and Jamie indicated that when he was at the Pacific Pride he was working on making that happen.