Blues History

Formed after the end of the 1971 season, the Bytown Blues Rugby Football Club have been representing the rugby community proudly over the past 42 years, on and off the pitch. While other area clubs are rebuilding, and few participating in the LPR, our club’s strong junior program has helped our club whether the covid storm, better than most. With at least two senior men’s squads and a full junior program and the new senior women’s program (work in progress), the Blues have a full summer schedule and a place for any and all of those that are interested. We are growing and going from strength to strength.

Senior Men

The Blues will be fielding at least 2 senior men’s team in 2022. Our 1st XV will be playing in the FRQ Super League, with our 2nd XV playing in the EORU development league. Many clubs are rebuilding and 2022 will be a rebuilding season, with the hope of a return to more normal numbers in 2023.

Senior Women

In the past few years, our junior girls program has made great strides in pushing this part of the club’s growth. With over 6-7 dedicated junior girls coaches, and the addition of more the junior program has produced a few university/college age women with the string desire to play club rugby. With covid, the EORU club’s women’s program will be an EORU based affair, no teams in the LPR. Many clubs are rebuilding, so our women will train with our U18 (their fellow teammates over the past few years) and form a combined EORU team to play the Scottish, Irish and Kingston women’s sides.

Junior Program

The Blues Junior program is an established and successful program, its strength is due to the dedication of the coaches, managers and players within the club. We run U14 through to U18 at both the boys and girls programs. Building upon strength we are looking for a fun and positive year ahead.

We have represented EORU at the provincial championships for the last 10 years, repeatedly. As well, the club has placed dozens of players a year on the regional, provincial and national team levels, at all ages.

Minor Program

The Blues started the minor (flag) program in 2016; with 18 players. With the successful introduction of Try Rugby sessions last winter, the Rookie Rugby program has grown significantly to over 47 players at U6, U8 and U10, for both boys and girls.

Our U12 introduction to contact will again grow this year allowing for both boys and girls graduate from flag rugby to the contact game. The games will mostly be at festivals, but hopefully a controlled contact version may occur before the season is out.

In 2021, we fielded a strong, yet limited 12 week program due to covid restrictions.