History
In 1998, Rugby Canada and the provincial unions agreed to form the Rugby Canada Super League (RCSL). Fourteen unions and sub-unions were invited to compete in the new semi-professional league.
The Rock were significantly successful in the RCSL, winning the Eastern Division to advance to the National Final match five of the league's eleven seasons.
During the eighth season of the Super League (2005), the Rock became the first team from the East to win the league Championship defeating the Saskatchewan Prairie Fire (26-13) and again the following season (28-14). The Rock lost the Eastern Final to the Niagara Thunder the following year, but returned in 2008 to beat the Calgary Mavericks for a third title, and the final one of the RCSL's history.
In 2009, Rugby Canada and the IRB decided to expand the NA4 competition to become the Americas Rugby Championship. In this new competition, there would be four Canadian teams, with one to represent Canada's five easternmost provinces, based from St. John's. Additionally, the RCSL was disbanded, to be replaced with a new Under-20 league called the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship. The Rock was chosen as one of the remaining RCSL clubs to enter the newly formed league.
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 Rugby Canada Super League was a national, semi-professional rugby union competition in Canada. The league represented the second level of domestic rugby union in Canada, and the highest level wholly indigenous to Canada. In terms of seniority it rested immediately beneath the IRB sponsored North America 4, a former US/Canadian cross-border competition in which two Canadian teams took part. Most players took part in RCSL on an amateur basis.
The Niagara Lightning are Canadian rugby union team based in southern Ontario. The team played in the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship and draws most of its players from the Niagara Rugby Union.
The 2006 Rugby Canada Super League season was the ninth season for the RCSL.
Rugby union is a moderately popular sport in Canada; it is quite strong as a participation sport, particularly in several hotspots like British Columbia, Atlantic Canada, and Ontario but does not attract the same level of spectator support yet, likely because the CFL's popular brand of Canadian Football is still similar to rugby in many ways, whilst also being the dominant football code in the country. Rugby Canada is the administrative body for rugby union in Canada. Every province also has its own union.
The Nova Scotia Keltics were a rugby team in Halifax, Nova Scotia that competed in the Rugby Canada Super League. They played their home games alternatively at the Wanderers Grounds and Graves-Oakley Memorial Park.
The Toronto Xtreme were a Canadian rugby union team based in Markham, Ontario. The team played in the Rugby Canada Super League and drew most of its players from the Toronto Rugby Union.
The Calgary Mavericks are a Canadian rugby union team based in Calgary, Alberta. The team plays in the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship and draws most of its players from the Calgary Rugby Union, one of fourteen Rugby Unions that have rep teams in the RCSL.
The Prairie Fire was a Canadian rugby union team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The team played in the Rugby Canada Super League and the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship, which followed once the former was disbanded. The Fire drew most of their players from the Saskatchewan Rugby Union, one of fourteen Rugby Unions that had representative teams in the RCSL.
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 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 2004 Rugby Canada Super League season was the seventh season for the RCSL.
The 2005 Rugby Canada Super League season was the eighth season for the RCSL.
The 2002 Rugby Canada Super League season was the fifth season for the RCSL.
The Vancouver Wave are a Canadian rugby union team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The team plays in the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship and draws most of its players from the Vancouver Rugby Union and the British Columbia Rugby Union, one of fourteen Rugby Unions that have rep teams in the RCSL.
The 2008 Rugby Canada Super League season was the eleventh and final season for the RCSL.
The Vancouver Island Crimson Tide are a Canadian rugby union team based in Victoria, British Columbia. The team plays in the Coastal Cup.
The MacTier Cup is the name of the championship for the top senior men's rugby league in Canada.
The Rugby Canada National Junior Championship was an amateur rugby union competition in Canada. It only lasted two seasons, 2009 and 2010. The 2009 champion was the Vancouver Wave, and the 2010 championship went to the Newfoundland Rock.
Atlantic Rock, also known as The Rock, are a Canadian rugby union team based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The team plays in the Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) and is intended to draw most of its players from the rugby unions of Canada's five Eastern provinces: Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island (PEI) and Newfoundland & Labrador.
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Noel Browne
