Matt Klimchuk Announced as 12th Signing for Vancouver Highlanders
Matt Klimchuk has been named as the 12th Vancouver Highlanders signing. Capped for Canada’s men’s senior team in 2022, Matt represented with Canada U20, Canada U18 and currently plays for the Pacific Pride, the Rugby Canada Academy team.
He was named to the Canada team that travelled to Spain in November 2023 for the La Vila tournament. He helped the Pacific Pride win the Coastal Cup trophy in the fall of 2023.
In the summer of 2023 he was named to the Canada team that toured Tonga for a two game series. He played for the BC Bears that summer when they entered the Coast to Coast Cup in Halifax.
November 2022 saw Matt claim his first Canada XVs cap in the match versus the Netherlands. Canada won the match 37-25. In October 2022 he was part of the Canada ‘A’ squad that travelled to South America, Matt got the start at blindside flanker in the 31-14 win over a Brazil XV.
In the summer of 2022 Matt was playing Canada U20 as Canada hosted Uruguay, Chile and Zimbabwe. Our notes on the Uruguay match, “Matt Klimchuk #8 from the Pacific Pride played well and is continuing to develop“. Also in the summer of 2022 he played in the Premier 7s competition south of the border for the Loggerheads, along with Brock Gallagher. In June 2022 he played on the Canada West team that dominated at the Coast to Coast Cup in Halifax, he started at openside flanker in the match against the Atlantic Selects.
In 2020 he shows up in our articles playing for the Saskatchewan U18 team in the Western 7s. Saskatchewan were surprise winners that year, defeating the four BC regions that were entered. Matt was second top try scorer behind Owain Cormack of the BC Mainland team. Also in 2020 he was a member of the Canada U18 team that toured to California.
In December 2018 Matt was on the Canada U18 team that toured California. Canada sent two teams, Red and White, and the USA sent two teams Red and Blue. The list of players that played on the U18 tour and have gone on to play at national level, in the MLR or signed for the Highlanders include: Matt Klimchuk, Takoda and Talon McMullin, Jacob Bossi, Cody Nhanala, Jack Carson, Logan Weidner, Ciaran Breen, Jamin Hodgkins.