A full scrum’s worth of North Shore players can now claim a part of history after helping the UBC Thunderbirds win the first ever Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship.
The T-Birds were dominant in the inaugural tournament played Nov. 16-19 in Guelph, Ont., scoring three impressive wins in four days to claim the title. In the final UBC faced a familiar foe from across the water, beating the University of Victoria 37-12 at cold and snowy Alumni Stadium at the University of Guelph.
The win was extra special for the Thunderbirds given that the new trophy is named after UBC legend Spencer McTavish, a longtime player and coach in the program.
“He’s a really good man – it was an honour winning the trophy named after him,” said North Vancouver’s Cole Keffer, who was named to the Tournament Dream Team after the final. “It’ll be cool looking back knowing that the very first inscription on the trophy will be UBC Rugby.”
More than a third of the team’s players in the championship come from the North Shore, all affiliated with Capilano Rugby Club. Joining Keffer at the championships were Nick Allen, Matt Anderson, Liam Doll, Elias Ergas, Nick Frost, Jake Lan, and Tyler Nylander. The team’s coaching staff also has a strong North Shore flavour, with head coach Rameses Langston and forwards coach Curry Hitchborn both coming out of the Capilano program.
“We have guys from all over,” said Keffer with a laugh when asked about the North Shore posse. “There’s a good mix of talent out there. But it is really nice playing with guys you’ve grown up with and you’ve known.”
Langston echoed Keffer’s comments about winning the Spencer McTavish Trophy.
“It’s a very special moment,” Langston said in a UBC release. “The trophy being named after a good friend and mentor Spence McTavish makes it mean even more. This was in our sights. We were excited when the tournament came up and we knew it would be a lot of hard work with great teams challenging for this. It’s nice to be recognized throughout the country as the No. 1 university for rugby.”
The tournament was unique in that it did not spell the end of the season for the Thunderbirds. For years they’ve participated in the BC Rugby Premier League, competing against Capilano and the rest of the top men’s programs in the province. They’ve won big there too, claiming the Premier League title the last three seasons.
This new tournament, however, allowed the Thunderbirds to prove their worth on a national stage, said Keffer.
“It was nice to finally play some people our own age and show them what we can do at that level of competition,” he said. “We are a very deep team. We got pretty much every player on the field in each game, and the level of play doesn’t really drop. It’s nice to see that we have so many people to step up – that really showed throughout the tournament.”
