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History of This Championship
The Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship was developed in 2016 and saw its inaugural tournament in 2017. While there were numerous corporate sponsors involved, the primary financial sponsor was the Canadian Rugby Foundation, with its Chair Mike Holmes one of four founders, along with long-time University of Victoria coach Doug Tate, Bishop’s University alumnus Keith Labbett, and current Foundation Executive Director Jeff Chan. Prior to 2017 there had been no national championship for University Men’s XVs Rugby, as there is for Women under the U SPORTS umbrella, so the CUMRC was established to fill that gap, and has also encouraged additional university teams to step up and compete to represent their regions.
An application has been submitted to U SPORTS to add Men’s XVs Rugby to its portfolio of national university sports, and a decision on this is expected in the summer of 2022.
HISTORY
The Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship was developed in 2016 and saw its inaugural tournament in 2017. While there were numerous corporate sponsors involved, the primary financial sponsor was the Canadian Rugby Foundation, with its Chair Mike Holmes one of four founders, along with long-time University of Victoria coach Doug Tate, Bishop’s University alumnus Keith Labbett, and current Foundation Executive Director Jeff Chan.
Prior to 2017 there had been no national championship for University Men’s XVs Rugby, as there is for Women under the U SPORTS umbrella, so the CUMRC was created to fill that gap, to encourage additional university teams to step up and compete to represent their regions, to deepen the university rugby talent pool and to ultimately improve the calibre of Canadian rugby at the senior level.
An application has been submitted to U SPORTS to add Men’s XVs Rugby to its portfolio of national university sports, joining Women’s Rugby and a decision on this is pending.
TEAMS
Since 2017 when 29 teams in 4 regions across Canada competed to qualify for the CUMRC tournament, the number of teams has grown gradually each year to the point where 33 teams in 5 regions – BC, Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic – will be competing to qualify for the 2023 CUMRC tournament hosted by Trinity Western University in Langley BC. New in 2022 were the Carleton Ravens and Memorial Sea-Hawks, and in 2023 are the York University Lions, and we are working to add additional programs – who are already competing at a non-varsity level – to our qualifying pool of teams.
RESULTS
Hosted by the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC
Gold – UBC
Silver – McGill
Bronze – Guelph
Hosted by Queen’s University in Kingston, ON
Gold – UBC
Silver – UVic
Bronze – Queen’s
2020
The 2020 tournament was to have been hosted by Queen’s University but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hosted by Concordia University in Montreal, QC
Gold – UVic
Silver – UBC
Bronze – Queen’s
Hosted by the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC
Gold – UBC
Silver – Queen’s
Bronze – UVic
Hosted by the University of Guelph in Guelph, ON
Gold – UBC
Silver – UVic
Bronze – McMaster
| Year | Host | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Recap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Trinity Western | UBC | UVic | Guelph | |
| 2022 | University of British Columbia | UBC | McGill | Guelph | 2022 Recap |
| 2021 | Queen's University | UBC | UVic | Queen's | 2021 Recap |
| 2020 | Canceled | NA | NA | NA | |
| 2019 | Concordia University | Uvic | UBC | Queen's | |
| 2018 | University of Victoria | UBC | Queen's | Uvic | |
| 2017 | University of Guelph | UBC | Uvic | McMaster |
