The British Columbia Bears (formerly Pacific Tyee) are the senior men's representative rugby team for British Columbia. They were originally 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 Bears went undefeated in round robin play against other Canadian teams falling only to the Argentina Jaguars in the ARC Final. From 2010 to 2018 the Bears participated in the Canadian Rugby Championship, along with the Ontario Blues, The Rock, and the Prairie Wolf Pack. This offshoot of the Americas Rugby Championship saw these teams once again compete in a round robin schedule.
Home grounds The Bears do not have a permanent home ground, but play at various fields around British Columbia. In their inaugural year the team hosted matches at Brockton Oval in Vancouver and MacDonald Park in Victoria as well as at Westhills Stadium (formerly Bear Mountain Stadium) in Langford. The 2010 season saw the Bears play exclusively at Klahanie Park in West Vancouver. In 2011 the team again played a majority of their home games at Klahanie with the exception of one match held at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna. For the 2013 season, the Bears played exclusively at Westhills Stadium.
Season records Americas Rugby Championship Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost Bonus Points 2009 1st (Round-robin) 3 3 0 0 2 14Canadian final BC Bears 12 – 8 Ontario BluesARC final Argentina Jaguars 35 – 11 BC Bears
Canadian Rugby Championship Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost Bonus Points2010 4th 3 0 0 3 0 02011 2nd 5 2 0 3 4 122012 4th 5 1 0 4 1 52013 2nd 5 2 0 3 4 122014 3rd 6 2 0 4 2 102015 3rd 2 1 0 1 0 42016 4th 4 0 0 4 1 12017 1st 4 4 0 0 2 182018 3rd 4 2 0 2 2 10
Best in the West Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost For Against2019 1st 2 1 0 1 60 50
Honours
Canadian Rugby Championship Champions: 2 (2009, 2017) Americas Rugby Championship Champions: 0 Runners-up: 1 (2009)
Current squad
Squad for the 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship season
Props Noah Barker John Braddock Nik Hildebrand Clint Lemkus Liam Murray
Hookers Paul Ahn Steven Ng Blake van Heyningen
Locks Mike Finnemore Craig McLaughlin Shea Wakefield Cam Polson
Loose forwards Dustin Dobravsky Luke Campbell Jason Hignell Travis Larsen Connor McCann Oliver Nott Nathan Stewart
Half backs James Pitblado Jorden Sandover-Best
Fly halves Theo Sauder Giuseppe du Toit
Centres Doug Fraser Mike Nieuwenhuysen Josh Thiel
Wings Jared Douglas Fraser Hurst Isaac Kaay Clayton Meeres
Full backs Sean Ferguson Aaron McLelland
Notable players Canada
The following players have represented Canada at full international level.
Ryan Ackerman Noah Barker George Barton Connor Braid Mike Burak Luke Campbell Admir Cejvanovic Liam Chisholm Luke Cudmore Thyssen de Goede Dustin Dobravsky Joe Dolesau Sean Duke Giuseppe du Toit Brian Erichsen Ed Fairhurst Aaron Flagg Doug Fraser Mike Fuailefau Mitch Gudgeon Ryan Hamilton Brodie Henderson Nathan Hirayama Jake Ilnicki Harry Jones Adam Kleeberger Anthony Luca Phil Mack Jason Marshall Callum Morrison Oliver Nott Cameron Pierce Pat Riordan Jorden Sandover-Best Theo Sauder David Spicer Brock Staller Josh Thiel Conor Trainor Sean White Eric Wilson
Overseas Representatives
The following players have achieved representative honours at an international level.
Andrey Proshin
Games played against international opposition YearDateOpponentResultScoreTour200917 October Argentina JaguarsLoss11–352009 Americas Rugby Championship Final200924 NovemberWin38–162009 Russia tour of Canada201012 June England CountiesLoss7–462010 Tour of Canada201018 June Royal New Zealand Navy (HMNZS Te Kaha)Win71–5Part of Canadian Navy's Centennial201416 July Buenos AiresLoss7–38BC Bears 2014 South American Tour201419 JulyWin21–20BC Bears 2014 South American Tour201610 August North OtagoTie22–22North Otago 2016 Canadian Tour201823 June Royal Air ForceWin23-19RAF 2018 Western Canada Tour
Head coaching history Name Years Record Percentage Mike James 2009–2010 6–5 54.5% Kris de Scossa 2011 2–3 40.0% John MacMillan 2012 1–4 20.0% Jim Dixon 2013–2014 4–7 36.4% Dean Murten 2015 2–3 40.0% Gabriel Fulcher 2016 0–5 0.0% Tony Healy 2017 4–0 100% Dean Murten 2018 1-1 50% Scott Manning 2018 1-1 50% James Thompson 2019 1-1 50%
References
External links British Columbia Rugby Union website CRC Official Website