VANCOUVER – With two dozen matches spread out over the next seven months, and the potential for more to be added in postseason/tournament play, the UBC Men's Rugby squad will be very busy in the 2025-26 campaign.
It all starts this weekend, when the 'Birds play host to the Trinity Western Spartans at the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby Centre on Saturday, September 6th. After a summer of training and preparations, and welcoming around a dozen new recruits into the fold, the T-Birds are ready to truly get going.
There will be plenty to play for this season, with five trophies up for grabs over the course of the year. That opening match against Trinity Western is part of the Coastal Cup – a three-team round robin tournament between the Thunderbirds, Spartans and Victoria Vikes where each team plays each other twice between early September and mid-October.
Those two battles with the Vikes will also decide who wins the Wightman Boot, the annual contest between the two long-time rivals where the winner is the team with the better aggregate score after both legs are complete.
If UBC's home match against UVic on October 4th wasn't already big enough – being the second leg of the Wightman Boot series and the third of the T-Birds' four Coastal Cup matches – it
also counts towards the BC Rugby Men's Premier League standings. A matchup with such stakes happening just a month into the season? It doesn't get too much better than that.
Following the end of the Coastal Cup, attention for the next few weeks fully turns towards Premier League play, as the Thunderbirds aim to continue their strong run of form in recent years – having earned a spot in the championship match in three of the last four seasons.
Of course, things are then switched up again not too long after, as in mid-November UBC will look to reclaim the Canadian University Men's Rugby Championship. The eight-team, week-long tournament is in Montreal this year, and the T-Birds will fight to win their sixth national title in what will be the eighth edition of the tournament.
After taking on the best BC clubs and Canadian universities, the new year brings the opportunity for the 'Birds to test themselves against NCAA Division 1 opposition. That happens in the second leg of the World Cup series against Cal Berkeley, where the T-Birds will look to overcome a defeat in the first leg last season to claim victory on their home turf on February 7th.
Despite some losses in their ranks due to graduation, the Thunderbirds return a number of talented players, including
James Biss,
Alastair Marshall, Takoda and
Talon McMullin,
Relmu Wilson-Valdes, and
Stephen Webb, who made his debut for the Canadian National Team just two weeks ago in a victory over the United States.
To see the T-Birds in action at their home opener, head to the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby Centre this Saturday afternoon. You can also watch on YouTube by
clicking the link here! Kick-off is set for 2:30 p.m. (PT).
