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.[1] 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.

BC Bears
UnionRugby Canada
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
www.bcrugby.com

Home grounds

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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

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Americas Rugby Championship

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Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost Bonus Points
2009 1st (Round-robin) 3 3 0 0 2 14
Canadian final BC Bears 12 – 8 Ontario Blues
ARC final Argentina Jaguars 35 – 11 BC Bears

Canadian Rugby Championship

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Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost Bonus Points
2010 4th 3 0 0 3 0 0
2011 2nd 5 2 0 3 4 12
2012 4th 5 1 0 4 1 5
2013 2nd 5 2 0 3 4 12
2014 3rd 6 2 0 4 2 10
2015 3rd 2 1 0 1 0 4
2016 4th 4 0 0 4 1 1
2017 1st 4 4 0 0 2 18
2018 3rd 4 2 0 2 2 10

Best in the West

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Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost For Against
2019 1st 2 1 0 1 60 50

Honours

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Current squad

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Squad for the 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship season

Props

Hookers

  • Paul Ahn
  • Steven Ng
  • Blake van Heyningen

Locks

  • Mike Finnemore
  • Craig McLaughlin
  • Shea Wakefield
  • Cam Polson

Loose forwards

Half backs

Fly halves

Centres

Wings

  • Jared Douglas
  • Fraser Hurst
  • Isaac Kaay
  • Clayton Meeres

Full backs

  • Sean Ferguson
  • Aaron McLelland

Notable players

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Canada

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The following players have represented Canada at full international level.

Overseas Representatives

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The following players have achieved representative honours at an international level.

  •   Andrey Proshin

Games played against international opposition

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Year Date Opponent Result Score Tour
2009 17 October   Argentina Jaguars Loss 11–35 2009 Americas Rugby Championship Final
2009 24 November   Russia Win 38–16 2009 Russia tour of Canada
2010 12 June   England Counties Loss 7–46 2010 Tour of Canada
2010 18 June   Royal New Zealand Navy (HMNZS Te Kaha) Win 71–5 Part of Canadian Navy's Centennial
2014 16 July   Buenos Aires Loss 7–38 BC Bears 2014 South American Tour
2014 19 July   Uruguay Win 21–20 BC Bears 2014 South American Tour
2016 10 August   North Otago Tie 22–22 North Otago 2016 Canadian Tour
2018 23 June   Royal Air Force Win 23-19 RAF 2018 Western Canada Tour

Head coaching history

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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

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  1. ^ "British Columbia Rugby Union Announces BC Bears Franchise". B.C. Rugby Union. 20 August 2009. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
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