QMS take provincial glory at rugby 7s tournament

The 2025 BC High School Sports provincial Rugby Championships were held May 28-31 in Abbotsford and Cowichan was well represented by seven teams from four schools. 

While six of the teams played Rugby XV's events, one, Queen Margaret's School, was in the Rugby Sevens tournament. 

When the dust had settled, one team returned to the region as provincial champions, two as runners-up, one as bronze medallists, and the rest placed no lower than sixth in the province.

Rugby Sevens

Queen Margaret's School Royals sent their girls squad to the 2025 B.C. High School Sports Rugby Sevens tournament and they came home champions.

"This B.C. Championship is a huge accomplishment for these athletes and coaching staff as it is our school’s very first B.C. School Sports Championship," said QMS spokesperson Hayley Picard.

The team not only showed their offensive prowess, but held opponents to just seven total points through their first four games. 

Against Mt. Baker in their first game, the Royals won 29-0 and followed that up with a 26-0 shutout of Langley. In their third game they scored 33 points to Salmon Arm's 7.

In the quarter-finals, the Royals met Peter Skene Ogden School and once again their defence was on fire, holding their opponents off for a 36-0 victory.

In the semi-finals QMS met Claremont and got away with a 10-5 victory and a berth into the tournament's final game against Oak Bay.

Oak Bay was the biggest challenge of the tournament for the streaking Royals, but in the end, QMS walked away with 17-15 victory and the provincial championship title.

AAA

Shawnigan Lake School and Quw'utsun played in the 'AAA' boys tier 1 division. 

Shawnigan Lake hadn't taken kindly to being beaten by Quw'utsun Secondary for the first time in history earlier in the season so they rolled up to the Island final ready to play on May 21. The end result was a 60-3 Shawnigan victory, advancing the team to the provincial 'AAA' rugby championships as the Island winner. 

Quw'utsun got to attend the B.C. tournament as a result of being runners-up.

The storyline was all set up for the two Cowichan-based schools to meet in the finals for another battle and it would have happened had the St. George's School Saints not thwarted Quw'utsun's plans in the semi-finals. The Saints beat the T-birds 19-12 to be the ones to face Shawnigan in the provincial final.

Shawnigan ended up losing to St. George's 31-12 to take the silver.

The T-Bird boys went on to play Oak Bay for third. Oak Bay won the match 32-15 and Quw'utsun placed fourth.

Seeded fifth, Quw'utsun was the lone Cowichan Valley team in the 'AAA' girls provincial rugby XVs tournament.

The team fell 12-5 to the No. 4-seeded Carson Graham in the quarterfinals on May 28 to stymie their hopes for provincial gold but they bounced back quickly, ousting Lord Tweedsmuir 41-10 in their second game. The T-Bird girls went on to beat WJ Mouat 46-0 on Friday morning for fifth place overall in the province. 

AA

The Shawnigan Lake girls beat Brentwood to win the Island title, though both teams advanced to the 'AA' girls provincial tournament.

Shawnigan Lake School went in as the second seed while Brentwood was ranked fifth.

In the quarterfinals on May 28, Brentwood got the better of fourth-ranked Maple Ridge by a 34-24 score to move onto the semi-finals May 29 against the tournament's top seed, D.W. Poppy.

Poppy bested Brentwood 51-0 to earn a spot in the final and Brentwood went on to play Mark Isfeld for third. A 30-14 victory gave Brentwood third place in B.C. — two spots higher than their initial ranking.

On the other side of the draw, Shawnigan bested seven seed Robert Bateman by a 67-5 score to advance to face sixth seed, Mark Isfeld in the semi-finals. They won that game convincingly as well, this time by a 37-5 tally. The victory put them in the battle for gold in the finals against a strong D.W. Poppy side. Poppy won the final 17-5 and Shawnigan took home provincial silver.

Meanwhile, Brentwood College School's boys played in the 'AA" boys tier 1 grouping but fell 39-31 to Sir Charles Tupper in the quarterfinals on May 28. The loss pushed the team into a battle for fifth in the province but to get there they needed to beat South Kamloops. They did just that, winning 53-22 to move on to play Westview for fifth place. 

Wesetview got the better of Brentwood, however, winning 54-0, giving Brentwood sixth place in the province.