Atlantic Rock, also known as The Rock, is a Canadian

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

team based in

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North Ame ...

. The team plays in the Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) and is intended to draw most of its players from the rugby unions of Canada's five Eastern

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is an island Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. While it is the smallest province by land area and population, it is the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

(PEI) and

Newfoundland & Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland and the continent ...

. The organization is a successor to the four

Rugby Canada Super League The Rugby Canada Super League (RCSL or Super League) was a national, semi-professional rugby union competition in Canada. The league represented the second level of domestic rugby union in Canada, and the highest level wholly indigenous to Canada ...

(RCSL) teams of those unions (PEI did not have a team), and was created when the IRB and

Rugby Canada Rugby Canada is the national Sport governing body, governing body for the sport of rugby union in Canada. Rugby Canada was incorporated in 1974, and stems from the Canadian Rugby Football Union, a body established in 1884 that now governs amate ...

decided to create a "hemispheric" rugby competition - the ARC. The Rock played their only home game of 2009 at Swilers Rugby Park in St. John's.

History

Prior to 2009, senior men's rugby east of Ontario had three levels:

Canada East Canada East () was the northeastern portion of the Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new colony, known as the Province of ...

, a single team that was a competitor in the IRB's NA4 North American rugby competition, the four RCSL teams in the area ( Quebec Caribou,

New Brunswick Black Spruce Black Spruce Rugby are a Canadian rugby union team based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The team plays in the Rugby Canada Super League and draws most of its players from the New Brunswick Rugby Union. The Spruce play their home games at Loyalis ...

, Nova Scotia Keltics and the Newfoundland Rock) and local club rugby. In 2009, Rugby Canada and the IRB decided to expand the NA4 competition to become the Americas Rugby Championship. In this new competition, there would be four Canadian teams ( B.C.,

the Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

and one to represent all of Canada's five easternmost provinces. Additionally, the RCSL was disbanded, to be replaced with a new Under-20 league called the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship. Effectively, this new senior competition (the ARC) replaced both of the top two (NA4, RCSL) tiers of senior men's Canadian rugby. In 2010, the Rugby Canada changed the format of the Canadian competition of the ARC, introducing the CRC. The 4 Canadian teams which competed in the ARC stayed the same, but now played in the CRC, with a Canadian Selects team being chosen from CRC players, and that selects team going on to represent Canada at the ARC. Though St. John's is actually the 5th largest urban area in the region (after

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

, Halifax and

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, directly across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region of Quebec and is also p ...

), it had a strong rugby community at the time the league was created. Specifically, it had a strong recent tradition of success in national competitions, with the Newfoundland Rock having won the RCSL's Eastern Division (which included Ontario teams) five of the seven years immediately preceding the creation of the ARC. Therefore, Rugby Canada decided to support the placement of the "Eastern /

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

Canadian" team in St. John's. Demonstrating the strength of the predecessor organization (and possibly as a result of the team's placement in St. John's), a majority of the team's initial squad had played for the Newfoundland Rock in previous years.

2009 season

The team's 2009 schedule included two away games (in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

against the Prairie Wolf Pack, and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

against the

Ontario Blues The Ontario Blues are the senior men's representative rugby team for Ontario Rugby Union, Ontario. They were founded in 2009 to compete in the Americas Rugby Championship against other representative teams from Canada, Argentina, and the United St ...

), as well as one game at home in St. John's (against the

BC Bears The British Columbia Bears (formerly Pacific Tyee) are the senior men's representative rugby team for British Columbia. They were originally founded in 2009 to compete in the Americas Rugby Championship against other representative teams from Cana ...

). If the team had been able to finish in one of the top two positions (of four), it would have won a place in the "Canada Semi-Final" of the ARC. The winner of that match played against the winner of USA Select XV vs. Argentina Jaguars for the inaugural championship. The Rock played their first match on 4 September 2009, defeating the Prairie Wolf Pack 31-23 in Calgary. The Rock scored 5 tries, giving them a bonus point in the standings for having scored four or more. However, the season did not continue as successfully, with a close 9-8 loss at home in Newfoundland against the BC Bears, and a thorough 32-5 defeat against the Ontario Blues in Ontario. Thus, the Rock finished third in the ARC's Canadian Division, and did not advance to the playoff matches.

Current squad

Squad for the 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship season

External links

Official Site

Team statistics page on CRC official site
{{Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Rugby union teams in Canada Sport in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador 2009 establishments in Newfoundland and Labrador Canadian Rugby Championship fr:Newfoundland Rock