The Rugby Canada Super League (RCSL or 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 (Canada East and Canada West) took part. Most players took part in RCSL ("Super League") on an amateur basis.
The competition was established in 1998 and had been played on an annual basis. It is considered to be Canada's premier wholly domestic rugby competition.[citation needed] Players on Canada's senior men's team were often chosen from Super League clubs.
The Super League drew its teams from provincial unions. Larger unions (BC, Alberta, and Ontario) had more than one representative team; those teams were drawn largely from provincial sub-unions. For example, the Calgary Rugby Union and Edmonton Rugby Union are sub-unions of the larger Alberta Rugby Union and had both been given representation in the Super League.
Teams were divided into Eastern and Western Divisions and played each of the other teams in their division once. The top team in each division played each other for the national championship.
The league rarely had identical membership from season to season, with teams who have membership occasionally electing not to play due to financial, logistical or level-of-play concerns. For 2006 season, the Fraser Valley Rugby Union of B.C. ("The Venom") and the Manitoba Rugby Union ("The Buffalo") elected not to participate, which created an unbalanced situation where the Western Division had five teams (therefore only four games in their season), while the Eastern Division had seven (six games).
The National Provincial Championship (NPC) was renamed for the 2021 season to the Bunnings NPC as a result of a commercial sponsorship deal with Bunnings Warehouse. It is a professional rugby union competition for New Zealand provincial unions consisting of 14 teams, divided equally between the Premiership Division and the Championship Division. The NPC remains the second highest level of professional rugby union in New Zealand, after Super Rugby. The NPC's 11-week regular and finals season runs from two weeks after Super Rugby ends to the third week after Labour Day, with each team playing 10 games and having one week playing twice. Following the conclusion of the regular season, four teams from each division advance to their respective play-offs, a single-elimination tournament of semi-finals and final.
The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), its counterpart being the East Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.
An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Conferences often, but not always, include teams from a common geographic region.
The Niagara Lightning are Canadian rugby union team based in southern Ontario. The team plays in the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship and draws most of its players from the Niagara Rugby Union.
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 Newfoundland Rock are a Canadian rugby union team based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The team plays in the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship (RCNJC) and draws most of its players from the Newfoundland Rugby Union, one of fourteen Rugby Unions that have representative teams in the RCNJC.
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 Edmonton Gold are a Canadian rugby union team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The team plays in the Rugby Canada Super League and draws most of its players from the Edmonton 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 have rep teams in the RCSL.
The Manitoba Buffalo was a Canadian rugby union team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The team played in the Rugby Canada Super League and drew most of its players from the Manitoba Rugby Union, one of fourteen Rugby Unions that have rep 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 2003 Rugby Canada Super League season was the sixth 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 Vancouver Island Rising Tide are a Canadian rugby union team based in Victoria, British Columbia. The team plays in the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship and draws most of its players from the British Columbia Rugby Union.
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.
Rugby union in New Zealand is structured into four tiers. The top tier is composed of the national representative teams, with the men's team – known as the All Blacks – at the top, followed by other representative sides such as the Black Ferns, Junior All Blacks and Māori All Blacks. These national sides are administered by the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU). Below this level is Super Rugby, where there are five New Zealand sides, each representing a different region of the country. Below this level is provincial rugby, the third tier – each province has a representative side that plays in either the semi-professional Mitre 10 Cup, or amateur Heartland Championship. These provincial sides are selected of Super Rugby players, and club players from within the province. Club rugby is the fourth and lowest tier, and consists of clubs competing in local leagues organised by a provincial union.
The Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) was a Canadian amateur rugby union competition, partially funded by the World Rugby. It was the highest level of men's domestic rugby in Canada. Four representative teams from regions across Canada competed for the MacTier Cup. The CRC was started in 2009 by Rugby Canada and was held annually from August to September. Rugby Canada also held CRC tournaments for under-19 men, under-20 women, and senior women.
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