Full name | Black Spruce Rugby | |
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Union | Rugby Canada New Brunswick Rugby Union | |
Nickname(s) | Spruce | |
Location | Fredericton, New Brunswick | |
Ground(s) | Loyalists RFC | |
Chairman | Sherry Doiron | |
Coach(es) | Malcolm MacAfee /Keith McAlpine | |
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Official website | ||
blackspruce |
Black Spruce Rugby are a Canadian rugby union team based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The team plays in the Rugby Canada Super League and draws most of its players from the New Brunswick Rugby Union.
The Spruce play their home games at Loyalists RFC in Fredericton.
In 1998, Rugby Canada and the provincial unions agreed to form the Rugby Canada Super League. Fourteen unions and sub-unions were invited to compete in the new semi-professional league. 9 teams played in the inaugural RCSL season - Black Spruce Rugby was one of the 9 original teams others were The Rock, NS Keiths, Montreal Olympics, Manitoba Buffalo, The Prairie Fire, Calgary Maverics, Edmonton Gold and the Crimson Tide.
Fredericton is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, also known by its Indigenous name of Wolastoq, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the dominant natural feature of the area. One of the main urban centres in New Brunswick, the city had a population of 63,116 and a metropolitan population of 108,610 in the 2021 Canadian census. It is the third-largest city in the province after Moncton and Saint John.
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, and referred to colloquially as football, footy, rugby, or league in its heartlands, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 m (74 yd) wide and 112–122 m (122–133 yd) long with H-shaped posts at both ends. It is one of the two major codes of rugby football, the other being rugby union.
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the Super 12 in the 1996 season with 12 teams from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, building on competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986. The Super 12 was established by SANZAR after the sport became professional in 1995. After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competition to split into three, the reformed competition in 2021 only included teams from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands.
William Eldon O'Ree is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player from Fredericton, New Brunswick. He is widely recognized for being the first black player in the National Hockey League (NHL), playing as a winger for the Boston Bruins. His accomplishment of breaking the colour barrier in the NHL has led him to sometimes be referred to as the "Jackie Robinson of hockey," whom he had the chance to meet when he was younger. In 2018, O'Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and starting that year the NHL has introduced the annual Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award in his honor.
Rugby Canada is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in Canada. Rugby Canada was incorporated in 1974, and stems from the Canadian Rugby Football Union, a body established in 1884 that now governs amateur Canadian football as Football Canada; and the now-defunct Rugby Union of Canada, established in 1929. Rugby Canada administers the Canada national rugby union team and sanctions the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship, a national competition for under-20 men's teams. It previously sanctioned the Super League as the premier level of men's competition in the country, but scrapped that league after the Americas Rugby Championship was created in 2009 as a two-stage competition in which the first involved only Canadian teams.
The UNB Reds are the athletic teams that represent the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
The St. Thomas Tommies are the college sports teams of St. Thomas University (STU) in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. The university fields six women's varsity teams and four men's varsity teams across six sports. Of the ten varsity teams, nine participate in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) as members of the Atlantic Colleges Athletic Association (ACAA), while the women's ice hockey team participates in Atlantic University Sport (AUS) of U Sports.
Rugby union in Cornwall is Cornwall's most popular spectator sport with a large following. The followers of the national side are dubbed Trelawny's Army. In 1991 and 1999 Cornwall won the County Championship final played at Twickenham Stadium, beating Yorkshire and Gloucestershire respectively to win the Cup. They had another strong spell in the 2010s, reaching seven of the eight finals contested between 2013 and 2022, winning four of them.
Rugby league is played across England but is most popular in Northern England, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire where the game originated. These areas are the heartland of rugby league. The sport is also popular in Cumbria where the amateur game is particularly powerful.
The Aquinian is a student-owned-and-operated publication at St. Thomas University (STU) in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. The Aquinian is published on a weekly basis during the regular academic year and is a member of the Canadian University Press.
The Fredericton Express were a professional ice hockey team based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. They played in the American Hockey League between 1981 and 1988. The Express were affiliated with the Quebec Nordiques and Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League. Home games were played at the Aitken Centre on the University of New Brunswick campus.
The Fraser Valley Venom are a Canadian rugby union team based in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia. The team plays in the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship and draws most of its players from the Fraser Valley Rugby Union, one of 13 Rugby Unions that have representative teams in the RCNJC. The Venom previously played in the Rugby Canada Super League until the national governing body, Rugby Canada, decided to disband the league after the 2008 season in favour of the Americas Rugby Championship. Rugby Canada established the RCNJC as a new under-20 national competition, with virtually all the RCSL unions choosing to field teams in that league.
The Maritime Women's Football League (MWFL) is a Canadian football league in eastern Canada. It was Canada's first all-female full-contact football competition when it began operating in 2004.
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The New Brunswick Junior Hockey League (NBJHL) was a Canadian Junior ice hockey league in the province of New Brunswick. The NBJHL was in competition for the Callaghan Cup and Centennial Cup as a Junior A league.
Jebb Sinclair is a Canadian rugby union player who played most recently for London Irish. Released from his contract over the summer of 2017, he is now coaching in Canada.
Vincent Churchill "Manny" McIntyre was a Canadian professional athlete who played both ice hockey and baseball. He is an inductee of the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
The St. Stephen Aces were a Canadian junior ice hockey franchise from St. Stephen, New Brunswick. The team was a member of the Maritime Junior Hockey League and played in the Eastlink North Division. They played their home games in the Garcelon Civic Centre in St. Stephen, New Brunswick.
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The UNB Saint John Seawolves are the men's and women's athletic teams that represent University of New Brunswick from the Saint John campus in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The Seawolves field six varsity teams with three men's teams and three women's teams that compete in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association. UNB Saint John student-athletes also compete in cross country and track and field along with UNB Fredericton students on the UNB Reds teams. The university also features club sports that are organized by students and that compete against other university and college club teams.