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 Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador), the West Island of Montreal, Quebec City and Ontario but does not attract the same level of spectator support yet, likely because the CFL's popular brand of Canadian Football is still similar to rugby in many ways, whilst also being the dominant football code in the country.

Tier two nations do not have a full-time professional domestic structure in place, but they are considered by WR to be the most promising countries in which to expand the sport.

Canada's main problems have included the climate, because many grounds are under snow/ice for significant portions of the year, leading to a split season.

[citation needed] Rugby in British Columbia has had a strong international flavour, with the University of British Columbia playing a regular series against the University of California, and representative BC sides have made tours to Japan and England.

[5] There is a considerable overlap between the early history of rugby in Canada, and the origins of Canadian football.

Early forms of rugby football were being played in Canada from 1823 onwards, in east Canadian towns such as Halifax, Montreal and Toronto.

It is most likely that rugby got its start in British Columbia in the late 1860s or early 1870s when brief mentions of "football" appeared in print.

F. Barlow Cumberland and Fred A. Bethune first codified rules for rugby football in Canada, in 1865 at Trinity College, Toronto, and the first proper Canadian game of rugby took place in 1865 when officers of an English regiment played local civilians, mainly from McGill University.

[6] Early Canadian rugby clubs included the following: The first major figure in the introduction of rugby to Canada was Alfred St. George Hamersley of Marlborough, an England international who had played in the first Calcutta Cup match in 1871, and he helped establish the game in British Columbia.

It was played regularly after this in Victoria by local players and sailors on the British ships stationed at Esquimalt.

Shortly after the game in Montreal, Trinity College, Toronto published the first set of Canadian rugby rules.

[6] Despite such encroachments, rugby remained popular in some parts of Canada, notably British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, particularly around Toronto.

[6] And in 1908, the British Columbia rugby union team travelled to California to play the All Blacks.

Following World War I, there was an increase in rugby in Canada, as servicemen rejoined their previous clubs.

[6] Canada first broke through into the top rank of rugby nations when it beat a touring Scotland side in 1991, and this was followed by an outstanding performance in the 1991 Rugby World Cup, in which they beat Romania and Fiji, and were narrowly beaten by France, reaching the quarterfinals.

[2] This westward drift has ensured that Canadian rugby now has an outlook to the Pacific Rim, rather than one merely fed by a heritage of largescale British emigration.

In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland and Frederick A. Bethune devised rules based on rugby football.

To make matters more confusing the word rugby continued to be applied to Canadian football.

In terms of international rugby, Canada has not been so isolated, since European sides touring Australia and New Zealand, and vice versa, would frequently stop off there, in the days before proper long distance jet flight.

[2] The Canadian national team have competed in every world cup since the first tournament held in 1987, until 2023 when they failed to qualify.

The Churchill Cup was a tournament conducted from 2003 through 2011, intended to help build depth in rugby in Canada and the United States, and an opportunity to develop new players for the England national team.

Although Canada was one of the three regular teams in the Churchill Cup, they never made the final until 2010, losing out to the England Saxons (that country's "A" national side).

[16] Six teams in "major metropolitan areas in the US Northeast, the Rocky Mountains and California" will play at medium-size venues, with a 10-match schedule from April to July 2016.

[6] Since 2009, the top age-grade competition in the country is the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship, involving under-20 teams.