Community Rugby Updates: Thunder Indigenous Rugby Celebration Recognizes Pacific Pride as Coastal Cup Winners, Phil Mack Indigenous Player of the Year Award, Thunder Youth Touring to NZ; BC Youth Groups Touring Over Spring Break
Thunder Rugby was a program started in 2013 to promote the sport of rugby to Indigenous youth, to give youth the opportunity to experience west coast Indigenous culture and to experience rugby and Indigenous culture world wide through rugby tours.
Their goal is to travel to NZ every 2 years to experience Maori and rugby culture. In 2023 the Thunder took two U18 teams, boys and girls, and played several matches on the North Island while experiencing the local culture and cameraderie of touring. You can read the highlights of the 2023 tour here. The Thunder are going to NZ again this summer with two U18 teams and hope to do so again in 2027.
The Thunder fund at the Canadian Rugby Foundation makes this achievable, each year the fund pays out interest on the principal which helps subsidize the tours, and makes it more affordable for the youth. The principal is re-invested by the Foundation making it a sustainable model. You can make a tax deductible donation to the Thunder Indigenous Rugby fund if you wish to support the Thunder program.
Thunder held a celebration at the Mungo Martin House in Victoria, Wawa’ditla, this past Sunday to celebrate the youth who will be travelling to Aotearoa (NZ) this summer, to recognize the winners of this year’s Phil Mack Indigenous Player of the Year award, to celebrate the volunteers that help the program throughout the year and to award The Bear trophy to the Pacific Pride team. The Bear, carved by Tommy Hunt Jr, Kwakwaka’wakw artist, is awarded to the winner of the Coastal Cup competition and it has been won for the last 3 years by the Pacific Pride. The competition takes place every fall between the Pride, UBC, UVic and TWU. The winners of the Phil Mack Indigenous Player of the Year for 2025 were Seth Recalma, Iain Anderton-Teasdale, Bella Anderton-Teasdale.
The video below shows highlights of the celebration event.
Spring Break
A number of BC schools and clubs are touring this spring break, here are some of the ones we’re aware of and their Instagram account. If we’ve missed one please put the info in the comments section.
CV Rapids in Scotland
https://www.instagram.com/cvrapidsrugby/
St. George’s in Spain and France
https://www.instagram.com/saintsathletics_/
Abbotsford in NZ
https://www.instagram.com/arfc.girls.nztour/
Shawnigan in Japan
https://www.instagram.com/slsrugby/
Collingwood in Australia