James Biss Announced as 3rd Signing for Vancouver Highlanders
The Highlanders have announced one of their flyhalves, current UBC #10, James Biss. Former UBC coach Curry Hitchborn describes him as “a smart and tenacious player.”
He first shows up in our current articles on July 1 2022 playing for a Canada U19 side vs BC U19. It was part of the Canada U20 camp preparations. He played some 7s that summer as well for the Marlins alongside Callum Botchar (MLR) and Cody Nhanala (Canada 7s). In August of 2022 he was named on the Canada U20 squad that would be taking on Zimbabwe, Chile and Uruguay in a tournament in Ontario. He was in the reserves for the Zimbabwe match with Jamin Hodgkins getting the start at #10. He got the start at #10 in the Chile match, which Canada won, and that earned him the #10 spot in the final match against Uruguay.
He started at UBC in the fall of 2022 and showed up in about 25 articles covering the BC Premier, Coastal Cup and University Championships. The last update was November 2023 when UBC won the Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship with a comprehensive 41-7 win over UVic. Biss was named to the tournament 2nd team All-Stars at #10.
Looking at the archives, we ran an article on the Pacific Pride players for the 2020/21 season and listed James Biss with the note, “from the UK and formerly with the Saracens Academy, plays #10, he was part of the 2020 Canada U20 team.” He was also on the Canada U20 long list in 2019 and listed as Saracens Academy.
So far 3 players have been named by the Highlanders, #10, hooker and loose forward. All three have been associated with the Pacific Pride, all have played Canadian university rugby, two of the three have played Canada U20. The Highlanders have a lot yet to reveal including who might be their first opponent.