Club History

Rugby is truly an international sport, popular throughout the world with Indigenous populations. Traditionally, it hasn’t been a sport of focus for Indigenous populations throughout Canada. For example, it is not one of the 7 sports identified by BC Aboriginal Sports and Recreation. However, we feel its international flavor, its Olympic inclusion and by its nature, an exciting and physical game that empathizes teamwork, make it an ideal sport for our Indigenous athletes and communities.

Our Values

The Vancouver Island Thunder aims to offer a structured vehicle to promote the game of rugby to Indigenous communities on Vancouver Island, specifically: - To promote the game of rugby to Indigenous communities - To identify potential high performance Indigenous athletes that could one day represent Canada, potentially at the Summer Olympics