The
Rugby Canada
Rugby Canada is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in Canada. Rugby Canada was incorporated in 1974, and stems from the Canadian Rugby Football Union, a body established in 1884 that now governs amateur Canadian football a ...
Super League (RCSL or Super League) was a national, semi-professional
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
competition in Canada. The league represented the second level of domestic rugby union in Canada, and the highest level wholly indigenous to Canada. In terms of seniority it rested immediately beneath the IRB sponsored
North America 4
North America 4, also known as IRB North America 4, was a North American rugby union competition launched in 2006. The competition was contested between two newly formed representative teams from each of Canada and the United States. The competit ...
, a former US/Canadian cross-border competition in which two Canadian teams (
Canada East
Canada East (french: links=no, Canada-Est) was the northeastern portion of the United Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new ...
and
Canada West) took part. Most players took part in RCSL ("Super League") on an amateur basis.
In early 2009, after 11 seasons of play, Rugby Canada decided to disband the RCSL in the wake of the establishment of the
Americas Rugby Championship, the successor to the North America 4. The RCSL was replaced by the
Canadian Rugby Championship and the
Rugby Canada National Junior Championship
The Rugby Canada National Junior Championship was an amateur rugby union competition in Canada. It only lasted two seasons, 2009 and 2010. The 2009 champion was the Vancouver Wave, and the 2010 championship went to the Newfoundland Rock.
The leag ...
, which absorbed the majority of the RCSL teams.
Overview
The competition was established in 1998 and had been played on an annual basis. It is considered to be Canada's premier wholly domestic rugby competition. Players on Canada's senior men's team were often chosen from Super League clubs.
The Super League drew its teams from provincial unions. Larger unions (BC, Alberta, and Ontario) had more than one representative team; those teams were drawn largely from provincial sub-unions. For example, the Calgary Rugby Union and Edmonton Rugby Union are sub-unions of the larger Alberta Rugby Union and had both been given representation in the Super League.
Teams were divided into Eastern and Western Divisions and played each of the other teams in their division once. The top team in each division played each other for the national championship.
The league rarely had identical membership from season to season, with teams who have membership occasionally electing not to play due to financial, logistical or level-of-play concerns. For 2006 season, the
Fraser Valley Rugby Union The Fraser Valley Rugby Union (FVRU) is the administrative body for rugby union in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. The FVRU currently consists of 10 rugby clubs.
The Fraser Valley senior men's representative team was known as the Venom.
Lis ...
of B.C. ("The Venom") and the Manitoba Rugby Union ("The Buffalo") elected not to participate, which created an unbalanced situation where the Western Division had five teams (therefore only four games in their season), while the Eastern Division had seven (six games).
Teams
Western Conference
Eastern Conference
Champions
See also
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Canada national rugby union team
The Canada national rugby union team (french: Équipe du Canada de rugby à XV) represents Canada in men's international rugby union competitions and is governed by Rugby Canada. Canada is classified by World Rugby as a tier two rugby nation and ...
*
Rugby union in Canada
Rugby union (french: rugby à XV) is a moderately popular sport in Canada; it is quite strong as a participation sport, particularly in several hotspots like British Columbia, Atlantic Canada (particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador), and Ontar ...
*
Canadian Rugby Championship
External links
Rugby Canada
{{Rugby union in Canada
Defunct rugby union leagues in Canada
Sports leagues established in 1998
1998 establishments in Canada