Montreal Exiles Rugby

The MONTREAL EXILES RFC are always looking for new recruits and people to get involved with our newly founded NDG club.  Players are always welcome as we continue to develop our senior men’s program and stress the importance of developing youth rugby.

The future of the club is dependent on the youth coming up and our hope is that youngsters from the NDG and surrounding areas will be keen and excited to continue playing rugby once their school seasons’ and high school careers’ are over.  To that effect, in the last issue of the LCC Lion – Lower Canada College’s quarterly magazine – a brief blurb can be found briefly summarizing last season and enticing LCC students and alumni to come out and play.  Our hope is that players from other schools follow suit.

The MONTREAL EXILES RFC currently practice Tuesdays from 6:30PM-8:30PM at Lasalle Community Comprehensive High School in Lasalle and will look to add Thursdays to our indoor practice schedule at the end of March.

Just a day after being written about in the NDG Free Press, the MONTREAL EXILES RFC were also written about by Mitch Gallo in The Suburban in their November 9th, 2011 issue.  Check us out!

 www.thesuburban.com (Pg. 44)

People said it couldn’t be done and yet we did it.  Rugby was indeed brought back to the NDG community with the creation of the MONTREAL EXILES RFC this past summer.  With great community support, the Exiles have yet again been written about by columnist Noah Sidel in the November 8th, 2011 issue of the NDG FREE PRESS.  Check it out!

http://www.ndgfreepress.com/pdf/FP-Nov-8-2011.pdf (pg. 25)

On Saturday, October 1st, the MONTREAL EXILES RFC participated in the inaugural John Jones Memorial 7s rugby tournament.  Several players of the newly founded Exiles knew John personally and the Exiles as a whole felt it to be very important to enter the tournament to honour his memory and legacy.

Additionally, the tournament was established in order to raise money for the John Jones Memorial Scholarship which is destined for a rugby player wishing to pursue his/her post-secondary education, and as such, fit very well in the Exiles’ desire to encourage & promote the growth of youth rugby.

Still banged up from the post-season and with several players out of town, the Exiles had quite a mix of young & old, experienced & inexperienced, and fit & unfit players.  The round robin was unkind to the Exiles with loses of 19-31 against the Lanark squad & 7-28 against the Montreal Irish.  Making the playoffs nonetheless, the Exiles did lose again 10-17 but did so to the eventual Plate Winners from Brock.  Regardless, all was not lost as the Exiles were still eligible to compete in the Bowl Finals against les Nomades de Laval where the Exiles were victorious in a 7s rugby boat race to bring home the Bowl Championship silverware in the Exiles’ inaugural season.

Montreal Exiles RFC win the Bowl Finals at the inaugural John Jones Memorial 7s Rugby Tournament - Exiles 4 Laval 3

The Exiles would like to extend thanks to all involved – especially the Montreal Irish RFC & the St Lambert Locks RFC – for the planning and organization of the inaugural John Jones Memorial 7s and look forward to next year’s memorial tournament to defend our title.

The MONTREAL EXILES RFC would like to recognize all Exiles members who have been part of the Quebec Caribou Rugby Programs and represented the province of Quebec this past season.

At the senior level, Telly Loukas played fixtures with the Quebec Caribou against Nova Scotia & New Brunswick.

At the U18 level, Cameron Chaput & Jesse Mikelberg represented Quebec at the National Junior Festival in Calgary.

At the U16 level, Kyle Brunet, Brandin Donnelly, Chayse Moore, Fred Perron, Jaelen Sampson, & Karl Villegas played fixtures against Brentwood, a traveling Welsh school side & Eastern Ontario.  Senior Exiles member, Alex Karen also acted as a part-time Coach with the U16 Caribou program.