Ontario Blues

Last updated
Ontario Blues
Ontario Blues logo.png
Full nameOntario Blues Rugby Football Club
Union Rugby Canada
Founded2009
Location Toronto, Ontario
Ground(s) Fletcher's Fields (Capacity: 3,000)
League(s) Canadian Rugby Championship
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Kit body Ontariokit2017v1.png
Kit body.svg
Kit right arm.svg
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Kit socks Ontariosocks.png
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Team kit
Official website
www.rugbyontario.com

The Ontario Blues are the senior men's representative rugby team for Ontario. They were founded in 2009 to compete in the Americas Rugby Championship against other representative teams from Canada, Argentina, and the United States. In their inaugural season, the Blues suffered narrow losses against British Columbia and the Wolf Pack before defeating the Rock to advance to the Canadian Final. The Blues would again lose to BC, but defeated the U.S. Selects in the bronze medal match.

Contents

In 2010, Rugby Canada changed the format of the Canadian competition of the ARC, introducing the CRC. The four Canadian teams which competed in the ARC stayed the same, but now played in the CRC, with a Canadian Selects team being chosen from CRC players, and that selects team going on to represent Canada at the ARC. The Blues went on to win four straight Canadian Rugby Championships from 2011 to 2014 during a stretch where they were 19 wins and one loss over three seasons. The Blues have since won the MacTier Cup in 2016 and 2018.

Teams

In 2017, Rugby Ontario announced that their entire provincial rugby program would be branded under the name "Ontario Blues", replacing the "Ontario Storm" name which had been used for the women's team. The Ontario Blues name now encompasses all provincial representative teams of Rugby Ontario. This includes age-grade competition (U15-U18), development squads (U19 Men's and U20 Women's).

The Ontario Arrows are a privately funded elite club, which is closely related to the Blues organization, that is in negotiations to join the professional Major League Rugby for the 2019 season. [1] [2] [3] [4] The club will play exhibition games in 2018 at York Lions Stadium. [5]

Season Records

Americas Rugby Championship

SeasonPositionPlayedWonDrawnLostBonusPoints
2009 2nd (Round-robin)310237
Canadian final BC Bears 12 – 8 Ontario Blues

Canadian Rugby Championship

SeasonPositionPlayedWonDrawnLostBonusPoints
2010 3rd310226
2011 1st5401420
2012 1st5401420
2013 1st5000323
2014 1st6501424
2015 2nd210115
2016 1st4301214
2017 2nd4202313
20181st4301214

Honours

Current squad

Squad for the 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship season.

Props

Hookers

Locks

Flankers

No 8

Scrum Halves

Fly Halves

  • Shawn Windsor
  • Kieron Martin
  • Roman Cao-Riquelme

Centres

Wingers

Fullbacks

Notable players

Canada

The following players have represented Canada at full international level.

  • Tyler Ardron
  • Stu Ault
  • Ray Barkwill
  • Brett Beukeboom
  • Rob Brouwer
  • Aaron Carpenter
  • Paul Ciulini
  • Alistair Clark
  • Andrew Coe
  • Derek Daypuck
  • Tom Dolezel
  • Andrew Ferguson
  • Eric Howard
  • Kainoa Lloyd
  • Jamie Mackenzie
  • Phil Mackenzie
  • Mark MacSween
  • Rory McDonell
  • Ander Monro
  • John Moonlight
  • Dan Moor
  • Taylor Paris
  • Dan Pletch
  • Mike Pletch
  • Lucas Rumball
  • Mike Scholz
  • Djustice Sears-Duru
  • Mike Sheppard
  • Matt Tierney
  • Liam Underwood
  • Andrew Wilson
  • Jordan Wilson-Ross
  • Doug Wooldridge

Games played against international opposition

YearDateOpponentResultScoreTour
200922 August Flag of the United States.svg Midwest Thunderbirds Win38-5Pre-season exhibition
200917 October Flag of the United States.svg USA Selects Win27-24 2009 ARC Bronze medal match
20108 June Flag of England.svg England Counties Loss32-26 2010 Tour of Canada
201010 July Flag of the United States.svg Midwest Thunderbirds Win38-5Pre-season exhibition
20125 May Flag of Chile.svg Chile Loss19-17Ontario Blues 2012 South American Tour
20128 May Flag of Argentina.svg Salta Province Win32-26Ontario Blues 2012 South American Tour
201213 MayFlag of Uruguay.svg  Uruguay Win27-16Ontario Blues 2012 South American Tour
20134 May Flag of the United States.svg New York Athletic Club RFC Win38-23Pre-season exhibition
201323 August Flag of the United States.svg Life University Win36-20Pre-season exhibition
201611 June Flag of England.svg England Counties Loss73-0 2016 Tour of Canada
201629 August Flag of Ireland.svg Cork Constitution Win12-102016 Tour of Canada
201729 April Flag of the United States.svg Old Blue RFC Win43-31Pre-season exhibition
201720 May Flag of the United States.svg Glendale Raptors Win43-25Pre-season exhibition

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References

  1. "New York and Ontario in Major League Rugby talks". 2017-11-13. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  2. "Ontario Arrows to launch Elite Rugby Team in September". 2017-08-25. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  3. Davidson, Neil (2017-09-08). "Ontario Arrows take first step toward becoming pro rugby outfit". Toronto Star . Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  4. "MLR reveals Finals Locations and Expansion Plans". 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  5. "ONTARIO ARROWS ANNOUNCE YORK UNIVERSITY AS 2018 HOME VENUE". Rugby Canada. 2018-03-06. Retrieved 2018-03-31.