Ontario Blues

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.

Ontario Blues
Full nameOntario Blues Rugby Football Club
UnionRugby Canada
Founded2009
LocationToronto, Ontario
Ground(s)Fletcher's Fields (Capacity: 3,000)
League(s)Canadian Rugby Championship
Team kit
Official website
www.rugbyontario.com

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
Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost Bonus Points
2009 2nd (Round-robin)310237
Canadian final BC Bears 12 – 8 Ontario Blues

Canadian Rugby Championship
Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost Bonus Points
2010 3rd310226
2011 1st5401420
2012 1st5401420
2013 1st5000323
2014 1st6501424
2015 2nd210115
2016 1st4301214
2017 2nd4202313
2018 1st 4 3 0 1 2 14

Honours

Current squad

Squad for the 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship season.

Props

Hookers

Locks

Flankers

  • Andrew Wilson
  • Josh van Horne
  • Jeremy Wright
  • Seb Pearson
  • Marcello Wainwright

No8

Scrum Halves

Fly Halves

Centres

Wingers

Fullbacks

  • Rory McDonnell
  • Mitch Richardson
  • Lucas Hammond

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
See also: List of Ontario Blues matches
Year Date Opponent Result Score Tour
2009 22 August Midwest Thunderbirds Win 38-5 Pre-season exhibition
2009 17 October USA Selects Win 27-24 2009 ARC Bronze medal match
2010 8 June England Counties Loss 32-26 2010 Tour of Canada
2010 10 July Midwest Thunderbirds Win 38-5 Pre-season exhibition
2012 5 May Chile Loss 19-17 Ontario Blues 2012 South American Tour
2012 8 May Salta Province Win 32-26 Ontario Blues 2012 South American Tour
2012 13 May  Uruguay Win 27-16 Ontario Blues 2012 South American Tour
2013 4 May New York Athletic Club RFC Win 38-23 Pre-season exhibition
2013 23 August Life University Win 36-20 Pre-season exhibition
2016 11 June England Counties Loss 73-0 2016 Tour of Canada
2016 29 August Cork Constitution Win 12-10 2016 Tour of Canada
2017 29 April Old Blue RFC Win 43-31 Pre-season exhibition
2017 20 May Glendale Raptors Win 43-25 Pre-season exhibition

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.
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