Rugby union in Canada

Sport in Canada

Rugby union is a moderately popular sport in Canada; it is quite strong as a participation sport, particularly in several hotspots like British Columbia, Atlantic Canada (particularly in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador), the West Island of Montreal, Quebec City and Ontario but does not attract the same level of spectator support yet, likely because the CFL's popular brand of Canadian Football is still similar to rugby in many ways, whilst also being the dominant football code in the country. Rugby Canada is the administrative body for rugby union in Canada. Every province also has its own union. Canada has around 26,000 seniors and twice as many junior players spread across the country, the leading domestic competitions are the Americas Rugby Championship, a cross border regional competition including the United States, Argentina, and Uruguay. The Rugby Canada National Junior Championship for under 20 players organised solely within Canada by Rugby Canada, the sports governing body, and Major League Rugby, the top level of club rugby in the country. Canada is classified by World Rugby (WR) as a tier two rugby nation. Tier two nations do not have a full time professional domestic structure in place, but they are considered by WR to be the most promising countries in which to expand the sport. The Canadian national side have competed in every Rugby World Cup to date yet have only won one match each tournament, with the exception of the 1991 tournament where they reached the quarterfinals, and 2015 and 2019, where they failed to win a single pool game. Canada's main problems have included the climate, because many grounds are under snow/ice for significant portions of the year, leading to a split season. Canada has long been a regional power in the sport, albeit in one of the sport's weaker regions. Argentina are the leading team in the Americas, usually followed by Canada, the United States and Uruguay.

The sport is played across Canada, with clubs even in places like Yukon. It is popular in Ontario,Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland in British Columbia on the west coast, and Newfoundland, where rugby is considered to be the most popular summer sport. It is also quite popular in Prince Edward Island, where it is played by far more people than Football, but is less popular than Baseball as a summer sport. Rugby in British Columbia has had a strong international flavour, with the University of British Columbia playing a regular series against the University of California, and representative BC sides have made tours to Japan and England.

There is a considerable overlap between the early history of rugby in Canada, and the origins of Canadian football. Early forms of rugby football were being played in Canada from 1823 onwards, in east Canadian towns such as Halifax, Montreal and Toronto. Rugby football proper in Canada dates back to the 1860s. Introduction of the game and its early growth is usually credited to settlers from Britain and the British army and navy in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Esquimalt, British Columbia. In 1864 the first recorded game of rugby in Canada took place in Montreal among artillery men. It is most likely that rugby got its start in British Columbia in the late 1860s or early 1870s when brief mentions of "football" appeared in print. F. Barlow Cumberland and Fred A. Bethune first codified rules for rugby football in Canada, in 1865 at Trinity College, Toronto, and the first proper Canadian game of rugby took place in 1865 when officers of an English regiment played local civilians, mainly from McGill University. By the late 19th century, the game was popular in Vancouver on the west coast. The game took root there, and as the Canadian Encyclopedia says:

"Vancouver, which, owing to its favourable climate and strong British tradition, became the game's stronghold." The Rugby Union of Canada was formed in 1929, which was followed by a tour of Japan by a Canadian side. During World War II the sport was only played on a limited basis, with most games being played involving mainly members of the Commonwealth Forces. In 1949, there were only three active provincial unions — British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Queen's University RFC from Belfast, toured British Columbia in 1953. In 1958, the Carling Cup was set up, which was won by British Columbia, but which lay dormant between 1959 and 1966. and a number of national and provincial bodies were called "Rugby Football Unions" or "Rugby Unions", such as the Ontario Rugby Football Union, Quebec Rugby Football Union. The first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, University of Toronto on November 9, 1861. A football club was formed at the university soon afterwards, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland and Frederick A. Bethune devised rules based on rugby football. However, modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game of rugby played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, the first recorded non university football club in Canada. This rugby football soon became popular at Montreal's McGill University. McGill challenged Harvard University to a game, in 1874. It is through this varsity play that the game now known as American football entered the United States. Predecessors of the Canadian Football League and the present day governing body Football Canada include the Canadian Rugby Football Union (CRFU), established 1882, and the Canadian Rugby Union, established 1892. Representatives from the Montreal (Rugby) Football club (now known as the Westmount Rugby Club), the Toronto Rugby Football Club and from the Hamilton Rugby Football Club had meetings in Toronto and Montreal. It was decided that the union would continue to use the English rugby rules, and at the end of the season the winning club of the Quebec Championship would play the Ontario Champion for the Club Championship of the Dominion. This organization (also known at different times as the Canadian Rugby Union), was the forerunner of the Canadian Football League, as rugby football in Canada evolved into Canadian football. To make matters more confusing the word rugby continued to be applied to Canadian football. It was not until 1967 that the original CRU finally cleared up this confusion by renaming itself the Canadian Amateur Football Association; it adopted its current name of Football Canada in 1986.

Canada is classified by World Rugby (WR) as a tier two rugby nation alongside Fiji, Japan, Romania, Samoa, Tonga and the USA (there are ten tier one rugby nations). In terms of international rugby, Canada has not been so isolated, since European sides touring Australia and New Zealand, and vice versa, would frequently stop off there, in the days before proper long distance jet flight. Rugby Canada, USA Rugby, and the Rugby Football Union of England all agreed to end the Churchill Cup after the 2011 edition, as both Canada and the USA will be included in WR's international Test schedule starting in 2012.

In 2004 and 2005 Canada replaced China in the Super Powers Cup. In 2005 Canada won the tournament beating Japan 15–10. The competition was discontinued in 2005 but representatives of Canada, USA, Russia and Japan have met to discuss reviving the competition, starting in November 2010.

Starting in 2013, Canada (along with the United States) has joined the Pacific Nations Cup. The tournament is intended to strengthen the Tier 2 rugby nations along the Pacific Rim by providing competitive test matches in a tournament format.

The Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) is an amateur rugby union league located in Canada, partially funded by World Rugby. It is the highest level of domestic rugby in Canada. It has four representative teams from regions across Canada, competing for the MacTier Cup. The regular season goes from August to September, and there is no post season. The CRC was started in 2009 by Rugby Canada. The league continues to grow every year, with more games being added to the schedule, and the format having changed in each of its first three years, making the league more competitive, and a prospect of becoming professional one day.

The Canadian Direct Insurance Premier League (also known as the CDI Premier League) is a provincial rugby union competition contested by eight clubs in British Columbia, Canada. The CDI Premier League is organized by the British Columbia Rugby Union. The Canadian Direct Insurance Premier League runs from January to April each year. The teams that play in the CDI Premier League compete in the Lower Mainland Spray League and the Vancouver Island Elite League from September to December. The teams compete for the Rounsefell Cup. The Rounsefell Cup was first awarded to Vancouver Rowing Club in 1922, and has been competed for annually ever since.

In November 2015, the Professional Rugby Organization (PRO Rugby) announced a USA Rugby and World Rugby sanctioned professional rugby championship. Six teams in "major metropolitan areas in the US Northeast, the Rocky Mountains and California" will play at medium size venues, with a 10 match schedule from April to July 2016. The league was expected to include Canadian teams upon expansion in 2017, but has since folded. In 2018, the top level competition of rugby in the United States became Major League Rugby, and the Toronto Arrows were announced to join in the 2019 season.

The Junior Inter Provincial Championship was started in 1976, and in 1982, Canada started up a junior national team, which played Welsh Schoolboys in 1983 and 1986, and England Colts in 1985. Since 2009, the top age grade competition in the country is the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship, involving under 20 teams. It was established as a replacement for the Super League, and most of the clubs that fielded teams in that league now send under 20 teams to the National Junior Championship.

In 1983, the Western Canada Women's Championship was established. By 1999, thirty women's clubs were registered in Canada.