Rugby Union in Canada - History

History

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 amongst 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.

Rugby is also an ancestor of Canadian football, currently its main competitor. A "running game", resembling rugby, was taken up by the Montreal Football Club in Canada in 1868. By the late 19th century, the game was popular in Vancouver on the west coast. Early Canadian rugby clubs included the following:

• Montreal FC, founded 1868.
• Halifax FC, founded 1870.
• Winnipeg FC, founded 1879
• Vancouver RFC, founded 1889.

The first major figure in the introduction of rugby to Canada was Alfred St. George Hamersley of Marlborough, an Englishman, who had played in the first Calcutta Cup match in 1871, and he helped establish the game in British Columbia. 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 first recorded game in British Columbia was played on Vancouver Island in 1876, between members of the Royal Navy and the Army. It was played regularly after this in Victoria by local players and sailors on the British ships stationed at Esquimalt.

The first club was formed in 1868. At that time no international agreed set of rules existed and the Rugby Football Union of England would not publish its official set of rules until 1871. Shortly after the game in Montreal, Trinity College, Toronto published the first set of Canadian rugby rules.

The Canada RFU was founded in 1882, and administered Canadian football - after this, Canadian rugby fell back to a provincial level, taking administrative directions directly from the English Rugby Football Union. Despite such encroachments, rugby remained popular in some parts of Canada, notably British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, particularly around Toronto.

By a happy coincidence, Canada's two main languages are English and French, meaning that it has long been influenced by not only the Commonwealth, but the French rugby community.

As early as 1902, a Canadian XV toured the British Isles. And in 1908, the British Columbia rugby union team travelled to California to play the All Blacks.

There was a brief resurgence in the sport, but that was halted with the onset of World War I. From 1914 to 1919, only in British Columbia and Nova Scotia were there the numbers for semi-regular rugby. In most other areas the game was not played on a regular basis. It has been suggested that some kept rugby alive during the period in an effort to boost morale during the war.

Following World War I, there was an increase in rugby in Canada, as servicemen rejoined their previous clubs. In 1919, a Canadian Services team, the Canadian Expeditionary Force, took part in an Inter-Services Championship played in Great Britain. The Championship consisted of matches played between six service teams from Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, with the final played at Twickenham. 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 1959-66. British Columbia retained the cup until Ontario won it in 1971.

Canada first broke through into the top rank of rugby nations when it beat a touring Scotland side in 1991, and this was followed by an outstanding performance in the 1991 Rugby World Cup, in which they beat Romania and Fiji, and were narrowly beaten by France, reaching the quarterfinals. In 1992, they compounded their success by beating Wales 26-24.

Although it was first introduced into eastern Canada, British Columbia has long been seen as the traditional centre of the Canadian game, and although there have often been as many players in Ontario as BC, there has been a steady drift westward of players. This westward drift has ensured that Canadian rugby now has an outlook to the Pacific Rim, rather than one merely fed by a heritage of largescale British emigration.