Coastal Cup aims to revamp High Performance rugby in BC

A new competition is set to kick off this weekend that could restore British Columbia’s place as the leading source of amateur talent in North America. The Coastal Cup is aiming to revamp high performance rugby in the province in an effort to bridge the considerable gap between the amateur and professional game.

Once the primary destination of Canadian talent hoping to reach the national side, BC’s top club division was long considered the best amateur competition on the continent. Recent years, however, have seen the its status challenged by the likes of Ontario’s Marshall League and the Pacific Rugby Premiership.

While the arrival of professionalism in the form of Major League Rugby has created a destination for elite players in Canada and the USA, the pathway from amateur rugby to higher honors remains cloudy. The Canadian Rugby Championship is now defunct leaving only Prairie and Eastern Canadian Super Leagues as isolated provincial competitions.

Seven teams are competing in what the Coastal Cup is calling a pilot season. Three are university sides – the UBC Thunderbirds, UVic Vikes, and Trinity Western Spartans. Also competing are the Pacific Pride, Rugby Canada’s centralized development squad, and three regional sides – Van East, the Vancouver Wave, and the Vancouver Island Crimson Tide.

UBC and UVic have a long history of producing Canadian internationals, with Trinity Western more recently building their university program under the guidance of former Rugby Canada S&C Coach Andrew Evans. The Pacific Pride re-launched in 2019, effectively giving the province four development sides with daily training environments.

Both the Vancouver Wave and the Crimson Tide are established organizations that previously competed in the Rugby Canada Super League. Van East is a newly created entity that leans heavily on the successful Burnaby Lake club with a few notable additions. Other teams could join in the future.

The season strategically runs during Major League Rugby’s off-season with no restrictions on imports or Canadian internationals. It can be argued that such limits have negatively affected the quality of the BC Premier League. All games will be recorded – with some streamed live – to provide useful footage for analysis and recruitment purposes.

Curry Hitchborn has spearheaded the competition’s emergence. Previously involved in player recruitment for the Seattle Seawolves during their 2018 season, Hitchborn has coached provincial age grade sides for several years and is currently Head Coach of the UBC Thunderbirds.

“One thing has become abundantly clear, the need for a new competition stream with trackable data. The hope here is that this Coastal Cup becomes the Mitre 10 Cup [New Zealand’s provincial competition recently renamed the Bunnings NPC, a feeder competition for Super Rugby] equivalent for MLR.

“This is for players who want to put themselves in a position where a national team selector can have a look at them. Maybe they’re in their off-season from MLR, and they’ve got somebody starting over them. This is the league where that guy gets meaningful playing time and keeps sharpening his skill-set.”

Along with Andrew Evans, Hitchborn has leaned on the support of fellow coaches Scott Manning, Phil Mack, Nanyak Dala, Christiaan Esterhuizen, and Aaron O’Flaherty. He also credits current BC Rugby President Mark Lewis with providing ‘invaluable insight’ in getting the project off the ground.

The competition has appointed renowned Canadian international Eddie Evans as its first Commissioner. A veteran of three World Cups and a decade of professional rugby in Japan, Evans also runs apparel company X-Treme Sports and is the founder and chairman of the Bangkok 10s tournament. In a media release he says the time is right for the a new competition structure.

“The bottom line is we want to get our BC players playing more rugby, especially at the higher levels. It is important for the development of rugby in our province as well as our country. Historically and traditionally, BC has been the hotbed of Canadian rugby and we need to get back to that dominance.

“Retention and keeping players in the game has also become a challenge and we need to address and reverse the trend. We are confident that this league will draw and keep players in the game as well as provide an arena for our top players to excel. We can sit back and watch the game dwindle or we can try new things to help improve and engage players, fans and supporters.”

Roughly a dozen players with MLR connections have been named on rosters for the opening weekend, along with numerous age grade representatives and aspiring professionals. New internationals Donald Carson and Liam Murray are joined by previous Canada caps Gradyn Bowd and George Barton who could make their case for a return to test rugby.

Club rugby at the moment will continue in an exhibition capacity until the new year. If the round-robin Coastal Cup is deemed a success, it’s envisioned that in the future clubs would contest the traditional Barnard and Miller Cups as Division 1 sides in the fall, with the Premier League becoming a spring-time competition. The change would see clubs saving on hefty travel costs in the fall and a higher standard of play in the spring when those who don’t sign professional deals return.

If all goes well the Coastal Cup could be a preferred destination for fringe MLR talent and Collegiate Draft picks to get valuable game time ahead of the regular season. It would also provide not only renewed interest but a ready-made feeder competition for BC’s own franchise that many Canadian fans hope will come to fruition in the not-too-distant future.

 

A formal season preview for the Coastal Cup can be seen here. Lineups for the opening weekend can be seen here. UBC’s match against Trinity Western will be streamed live here at 2:30pm PT on Saturday.