Richmond Rugby Football Club

The Richmond Rugby Football Club (usually shortened to RRFC) is an amateur rugby union team based in Richmond, British Columbia which competes in the British Columbia Rugby Union. The club has represented the city since 1957, and has been a successful mid-sized club for the past decade, drawing players from the city itself as well as outlying areas. The Richmond R.F.C. also work closely with local high schools and the community to foster the growth of the game on Lulu Island.
Teams
Senior Men
In 2017-18, Richmond fields two senior men's teams. The senior men's XV (The Reds) play in the Lower Mainland Third Division. Richmond also fields an Under-23 men's team (The Blacks) in the BC U-23 Division. Richmond's men's side competed in the 2011 BC League 1 final played at Klahanie Park in North Vancouver ultimately losing to the Capilano RFC. Competing in the BC League 2 division, Richmond's men's side were champions in 1995 and 2009, runners up in 2015 and finished third in the province in 2011 and 2012. Competing in the BC League 3 division, Richmond's men's side were runners up in 2019.
Junior Rugby
In the Spring, the RRFC has a monthly mini rugby program (for ages 5 - 12) which teaches young rugby players the basics of running and passing as well as the laws of the game. In the Fall the club fields teams in the U-16 and U-19 Lower Mainland boys leagues and in the U-19 Lower Mainland girls league (in combination with the Ex-Britannia Lions). From 2003-2018, Richmond's junior programs have won three provincial titles, were provincial runners-up twice and provincial bronze medalists twice. The club provides players for the Vancouver Rugby Union at the annual Provincial Regional Tournament and for the Vancouver-Coastal region at the biennial BC Summer Games.
Club History
The Richmond Rugby club was born in August 1957 when a group of nine rugby enthusiasts met at Richmond City municipal hall in response to a small notice in the Richmond Review newspaper. Among the founders were Ron Cameron, a Municipal Engineer from Ireland who had played for the nearby Meraloma Rugby Club, town planners Bill Kerr and Herb Douglas, city-workers Mel Frith and Glen Beauchamp as well as school teacher Maurice Smith. The team originally played their home games at Thomas Kidd field in South-East Richmond. After 1967 the team played their home games in Steveston. In the 1980s the club moved to Sea Island playing their home games on a field adjacent to Vancouver International Airport. After lengthy discussions with the City of Richmond, a permanent facility was created at King George Park in East Richmond. Richmond has two change-room facilities, as well as storage on-site, and a well-lit, sand-cell field with uncovered seating for about 100 spectators.
Richmond has been a member of the Fraser Valley Rugby Union since its inception although it supplies age grade players to both the Fraser Valley Venom and Vancouver Wave junior representative teams.
In 2009, Richmond began a partnership with the Flatliners R.F.C. a social side of BC paramedics. The two clubs jointly hosted the Flatlander Sevens tournament, a fixture on the British Columbia Rugby Union Sevens summer schedule for several years in the mid-2010's.
Since 2010, the club has awarded the Dickie Evans Challenge Cup to the Senior Girls school champions of Richmond and the Art Dodd Trophy to the Senior Boys school champions of Richmond. Since 2009, the club has annually selected 15 male athletes and 10 female athletes from area high schools as Maurice Smith City All-Stars.
In 2013, the club partnered with local rugby league side the Valley Warriors to provide rugby year-round in the city. The club has also hosted international Rugby League matches between the Canada Ravens and Corrimal Cougars women's rugby league sides, as well as matches between the Canada Wolverines and Fiji Bati men's rugby league sides.
The club has two friendly challenge cups in which they compete against area teams. The Canada Line Cup, contested between the RRFC and the Vancouver Rowing Club, is named for the local transit line that runs from Richmond to Downtown Vancouver in close proximity to both club's playing fields. The Steven Hu Trophy is a cup awarded to the winner of any match between the University of British Columbia and the RRFC's men's sides. It is named after former Richmond player Steven Hu, who was injured in a tragic touch rugby accident while enrolled at the University.
Notable players
The RRFC has produced numerous players of distinction who have played representative rugby both for the BC Bears or for the Canadian National team at the junior men's and women's as well as senior men's levels. These include current national team 15's and 7's player Nathan Hirayama, and former team Canada stalwarts Bill Spofford, Jerry Lorenz and Jim Donaldson. Former Canadian Women's National Team player Geraldine Griffiths also got her start with the club. As well the club has provided the Canadian Maccabiah Games rugby team with five players for the 2009 and 2013 competitions. In 2018, U-19 girl's Scrum-Half Elsie Gonzalez was selected to play for the Mexico women's national rugby sevens team at the Rugby America's North championships. In 2017 and 2018, men's Prop Ethan Bacungan was selected to play for the Philippines national rugby union team at the Asian U-19 Division 1 tournament.
Other notable former players include:
* Greg Bearman, Ottawa Rough Riders
* Noah Cantor, BC Lions
* Brad Field, Doncaster Knights
* Kyle Hamilton, Olympic Rower
* Jarrad Hickey, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
* Henry Huth, Calgary Stampeders
* Bob Jeter, BC Lions
* Peter Kempf, BC Lions

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