History

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.
Rugby is also an ancestor of Canadian football, currently its main competitor. A "running game", resembling rugby, was taken up by the Montreal Football Club in Canada in 1868. By the late 19th century, the game was popular in Vancouver on the west coast. Early Canadian rugby clubs included the following:
• Montreal FC, founded 1868.
• Halifax FC, founded 1870.
• Winnipeg FC, founded 1879
• Vancouver RFC, founded 1889.
The first major figure in the introduction of rugby to Canada was Alfred St. George Hamersley of Marlborough, an Englishman, who had played in the first Calcutta Cup match in 1871, and he helped establish the game in British Columbia. The game took root there, and as the Canadian Encyclopedia says:
The first recorded game in British Columbia was played on Vancouver Island in 1876, between members of the Royal Navy and the Army. It was played regularly after this in Victoria by local players and sailors on the British ships stationed at Esquimalt.

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