BC Rugby – The 2nd Annual Vancouver Rugby Festival welcomes 50 teams to this exciting 2-day tournament.

A few of the participating teams in the Vancouver Rugby Festival. 

Vancouver, BC – March 8, 2017: After much anticipation, the 2017 Vancouver Rugby Festival (VRF) is finally here. The Festival welcomes a total of 50 teams competing across 9 different divisions, with teams coming to Vancouver from as far as New Zealand and South Africa. The Open, Elite and Age-Grade competitions will be at UBC while the Over 40s teams will be competing at Connaught Park. In addition, the Elite Women Bronze and Gold Medal matches will be played in BC Place on the Saturday of the HSBC Canada Sevens tournament.

With supportive sponsors and partners like the University of British Columbia, BC Rugby hopes to provide a fun and exciting atmosphere for both teams and spectators alike. Dan Cooper, Associate Director of Facilities at UBC shares, “We are very excited to host the upcoming Vancouver Rugby Festival at UBC. The opportunity to bring another world class rugby event to campus, and to support BC’s thriving rugby community is a great fit with UBC’s commitment to sporting excellence and community spirit.”

Visiting teams will be exposed to the growing enthusiasm for BC. 

Keith Hodgkins, Head Coach of the Warwick Academy U16 team expresses his excitement for the Festival, “This will be a great test for this young team and I am expecting them to bring a little attitude to show Canada what they are made of. Please feel free to introduce yourselves to our team and ask the players for one of our Bermuda Rugby wrist bands as we are also here to meet new friends.”

Teams from across BC will be providing some strong competition as well as they fill up their teams with experienced players. John Lyall of Thunder Rugby shares, “Thunder Rugby is excited to have Canadian legend Phil Mack suit up in his first playing effort for our team!”

Rugby fans are encouraged to attend this 2-day tournament to watch some exciting rugby action. For those unable to make it out to UBC or Connaught, some Elite and Open games on Friday will be live-streamed on bcrugby.com.

Remember to follow our Vancouver Rugby Festival Twitter feed to receive live updates from the Festival. For more information about the Festival, visit http://www.bcrugby.com/vanrugbyfest/

2017 VRF Teams:

Elite Men 
Wolfpack
Fiji Blond 
Thunder Rugby 
BC Rugby 
Maple Leafs 
UBCOB Ravens 
Stars Rugby 

Elite Women
USA Falcons 
South Africa Women’s Select 
Maple Leafs 
Stars Rugby 

Open Men
BC Rugby
UBCO 
Meralomas
Capilano RFC 

Open Women
BC Rugby 
Meralomas 
Thunderbirds 1 
Thunderbirds 2 
UBCO 
CWU 

Over 40s
Twilighters 
Snowcaps RFC 
Calgary Cobras 
Everlegends 
Semiamhoo Old Boys RC 
Abbotsford Originals 
RA Rugby 
Portland Old Boars RFC 

Under 18 Boys 
Shawnigan Lake A 
Shawnigan Lake B 
BC Rugby 
Kayak 
Edmonton Rugby Union Gold 

Under 18 Girls
BC Rugby Blue 
BC Rugby Gold 
Washington Loggers  
Tahi Kaha All Stars 
Calgary Irish Barbarian 
Edmonton Rugby Union Gold 
University of Alberta Jr Pandas 

Under 16 Boys
BC Rugby  
Warwick Grizzlies 
Edmonton Rugby Union Gold  
Kayak 

Under 16 Girls 
Fraser Valley U16 
Island U16 
Interior U16 
North West 
Edmonton Rugby Union Gold 

About the Vancouver Rugby Festival
The Vancouver Rugby Festival is an annual tournament hosted by BC Rugby, complementing the HSBC Canada Sevens Vancouver Tournament. Headlining the Festival is the Elite Division, comprised of world-class international and provincial teams. In addition, the Festival will host competitions in the Open Division, Age-Grade Division (Under 16 and Under 18) and Over 40s Division. For more information about the Vancouver Rugby Festival, visit http://www.bcrugby.com/vanrugbyfest/.

More information about BC Rugby

The British Columbia Rugby Union, commonly known as BC Rugby, is the governing body for Rugby in British Columbia and is a Provincial Union of Rugby Canada, the national governing body. Representing over 7,500 individuals registered through around 60 Member Clubs and Associations across the Province, BC Rugby leads and manages the sport with the aim to grow participation and develop excellence in all games of Rugby and in all facets of the sport.

Web: bcrugby.com

Twitter: twitter.com/bcrugbyunion

Facebook: facebook.com/bcrugbyunion

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For further information, please contact:

BC Rugby

Cassie Xiong

Marketing & Communications Manager
cxiong@bcrugby.com

Tel: +1- 604-737-3070