The Ontario Blues are the senior men's representative rugby team for

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. They were founded in 2009 to compete in the

Americas Rugby Championship The Americas Rugby Championship, often informally called the Americas' Six Nations, was an annual international rugby tournament between six North and South American nations: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the United States and Uruguay. Origin ...

against other representative teams from Canada, Argentina, and the United States. In their inaugural season, the Blues suffered narrow losses against

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

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. 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 Toronto Arrows R.F.C. is a rugby union club based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that plays in Major League Rugby. The Arrows team is an independent off-shoot of the Ontario Blues provincial programme and is funded by a group of private investors ...

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 Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2022 season it was contested by thirteen teams: twelve from the United States and one from Canada. Off ...

for the 2019 season. The club will play exhibition games in 2018 at

York Lions Stadium York Lions Stadium is an outdoor sports stadium on the Keele Campus of Toronto's York University in the former city of North York. It is home to the York Lions, the varsity teams of York University, the Toronto Arrows of Major League Rugby and Y ...

Season Records

Americas Rugby Championship

Canadian Rugby Championship

Honours

Canadian Rugby Championship The Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) (french: Championnat provincial du Canada de rugby à XV) 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 ...

** Champions: 6 (

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2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

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)

Current squad

Squad for the 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship season. ''Props'' *

Rob Brouwer Rob Brouwer (born December 10, 1982) is a Canadian rugby union player who currently plays for the Toronto Arrows of Major League Rugby (MLR). Early life Brouwer was born in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada and spent much of his early years working on the ...

Djustice Sears-Duru Djustice Sears-Duru (born 24 May 1994) is a Canada international rugby union prop who plays for Ealing Trailfinders and the San Diego Legion in Major League Rugby (MLR). He previously played for the Seattle Seawolves and the LA Giltinis in t ...

* Ryan Surgenor * Pat Lynott *

Doug Wooldridge Doug Wooldridge (born 19 December 1985 in Lindsay, Ontario) is a rugby union prop who played for Ontario Blues and Canada. Wooldridge made his debut for Canada in 2009 and was part of the Canada squad at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Few months afte ...

''Hookers'' *

Eric Howard Eric Gerald Howard (born September 5, 1993) is a Canadian rugby union player. He plays as a hooker for the NOLA Gold of Major League Rugby (MLR) and the Canadian national team. Howard started his rugby career with the Ottawa Beavers, before j ...

Andrew Quattrin Andrew Quattrin (born 29 August 1996) is a Canadian rugby union player. Quattrin plays Hooker for the New England Free Jacks in Major League Rugby (MLR). He also represents Canada by playing for the Canadian rugby team. Rugby career Internatio ...

* Hank McQueen ''Locks'' * Mike Sheppard *

Paul Ciulini Paul Ciulini (born October 28, 1995) is a Canadian rugby union player who plays for the Toronto Arrows of Major League Rugby (MLR). The position he plays is lock. Rugby career Ciulini first started playing rugby with the Aurora Barbarians in 200 ...

* Kolby Francis ''Flankers'' * Andrew Wilson * Josh van Horne * Jeremy Wright * Seb Pearson *

Marcello Wainwright Marcello is a common masculine Italian given name. It is a variant of Marcellus. The Spanish and Portuguese version of the name is Marcelo, differing in having only one "l", while the Greek form is Markellos. Etymology The name originally means ...

''No 8'' *

Lucas Rumball Lucas James Rumball (born 2 August 1995) is a Canadian rugby union player who generally plays as a back-row represents Canada internationally and also currently plays for Canadian club Toronto Arrows in Major League Rugby (MLR). He was include ...

* Peter Milazzo ''Scrum Halves'' *

Andrew Ferguson Andrew Ferguson (born June 28, 1956) is an American journalist and author. Career Ferguson is currently a staff writer at ''The Atlantic''. Previously, he was senior editor of ''The Weekly Standard'' (defunct since December 2018), and a columni ...

* Mario van der Westhuizen * Riley di Nardo ''Fly Halves'' * Shawn Windsor * Kieron Martin * Roman Cao-Riquelme ''Centres'' * Jamie Leveridge * Dan Moor * Andrew Coe * Alex Colborne * Jon West ''Wingers'' * Josh Campbell * John Sheridan *

Kainoa Lloyd Kainoa Lloyd (born 21 May 1994) is a Canadian rugby union player who plays as a winger for the Houston SaberCats in Major League Rugby (MLR). He also plays for the Ontario Blues in the Canadian Rugby Championship and Canada internationally. He ...

''Fullbacks'' * Rory McDonnell * Mitch Richardson * Lucas Hammond

Notable players

Canada

The following players have represented

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

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

References

External links

Rugby Ontario website

ARC website
{{Rugby union in Canada Rugby union teams in Ontario Rugby teams in Toronto Canadian Rugby Championship