The Prairie Fire are a founding member of the Rugby Canada Super League which was formed in 1998. The mission of the Fire: to be 100% committed to raising the profile of Rugby in Saskatchewan. As an original member of the RCSL the Prairie Fire has become the flagship of the league and the innovator in terms of the development of fan base, marketing, game day events, and on field product. Rarely in Canadian Rugby (even at international fixtures) will you see the production level evident in the top-notch sports/entertainment offered during a Prairie Fire Game Day.
The early afternoon hours feature the future of Prairie Fire Rugby in the Brush Fire league for elementary school children including both boys and girls. Often showcased is the Provincial Interlock. Pitting teams from across Saskatchewan against each other in the quest for the British Cup Provincial Championship and displaying local rugby talent this is a great way to whet rugby appetites. Few things are as exciting as watching the fast paced hard-hitting action of the Junior Fire competing against the Western Interior teams and competing for their place with the Prairie Fire.
Marching bands, national anthems, half time shows, on-field commentators, speakers belting out tunes, and local legend "the Flame" will keep you entertained from the moment you arrive at Regina Rugby Park. Whether you are enjoying the day's festivities from the Heart of the Fire Private Boxes, in the stands or on the grass, the action is lightening quick and the hometown fans as receptive as any Rider Crowd.
Right from the kick off you'll enjoy some of the best rugby skills in the world. Hard hitting, all out sprinting, fast paced and exciting action for 80 minutes.
Following all Fire games continue to look for top rate hospitality at the impressive Regina Rugby Union Clubhouse facility. Served professional event staff, enjoy food and beverage service second to none while immersing yourself in Canadian and International Rugby culture. Local musical favorites entertain the crowd until the early hours of the morning and bring them back as repeat visitors. The après Rugby celebration is the best in Canada and sends home weary participants hoarse and tired after a complete day.
Whether you choose to make it an entire day or share a part of the celebration make sure you don't miss the newest most exciting sports entertainment package that Saskatchewan has to offer.
Can You Feel the Heat!
Let us now take a brief retrospective look at the team's beginnings in the Rugby Canada Super League eight short seasons ago. The accomplishment of the 2005 Prairie Fire team in bringing a national championship final to the Province is all the more significant when we reflect upon the remarkable progress of the club's local Saskatchewan players as well as the number of early Praire Fire players, coaches and organizers who have gone on to enjoy success in the latter stages of their rugby careers.
The Prairie Fire Rugby Football Club began operation in the inaugural season of the Rugby Canada Super League in 1998. Under the auspices of the Saskatchewan Rugby Union, the Prairie Fire joined 11 other rugby clubs from across Canada to compete for the national championship of senior rugby in this country.
In its first year of operation the Rugby Canada Super League was comprised of two divisions, a Western Division and an eastern division. The Prairie Fire competed in the extremely challenging Western Division alongside the Calgary Mavericks and Edmonton Gold from Alberta, the Manitoba Buffalo who played out of Winnipeg, and three entries from B.C; the Crimson Tide from Victoria, the Fraser Valley Venom from the interior of B.C. and the Vancouver Rugby Club. The Eastern Division had as one of it's founding members, this year's Eastern champion Newfoundland Rock, as well as the Black Maple from New Brunswick, the Keltics from Nova Scotia and the Quebec Olympics. Ontario teams would join the Super League in 1999.
The Super League replaced the previous format of determining a national champion amongst competing provincial representative teams which previously pulled together all-star teams from respective club teams once a year to contest tier one and tier two championships. These tournaments' were typically held over the course of a weekend at the end of the summer and provided an intense but limited venue for the best players in their respective jurisdictions to come together to represent their provinces at the national level.
The concept of the Super League was based upon the concept that a broader base of elite players from across the country, and the game itself, could benefit by establishing a basis for competition over a multi-game schedule.
At the conclusion of the regular season, the best teams in each of Eastern and Western Canada would be determined with the respective champions from the East and West playing off in a sudden-death championship match to determine the ultimate prize in Canadian rugby.
As had been the case for many years on the Regina Rugby scene, the driving force behind the Prairie Fire's initial entry into the Canada Rugby Super League was General Manager Karl Fix. Karl brought together a management committee of business and community leaders to oversee the operation and promotion of Saskatchewan's newest entry to elite sports in Saskatchewan.This tradtion would be carried on by the subsequent GM's - Roz Ingram(as a Canadain and possibly an international rugby first),Dick Cornish and Leo Lane.
With a management structure in place, Karl's efforts to establish the Prairie Fire as a credible and competitive team in its first season began with the hiring of a promising young head coach in the person of Rick Suggit. As most reading this story will know, following his stint with the Fire, Coach Suggit would move on to enjoy international success on behalf of Canada in a number of different coaching positions and is currently the Head Coach of Canada's National Senior Men's Team. Coach Suggit was supported by assistant coaches Bill Folk, Ken Karwandy, Arnie Maier, and Brian Rowlands.
This foursome brought not only a wealth of individual playing and coaching experience but of equal importance, the group contributed an intimate knowledge of Saskatchewan's local rugby community and its players.
On the field the coaching staff assembled a core of experienced and promising local players with a select number of energetic young players who had been playing rugby outside the Province. Veteran local players such as Saskatchewan's most capped player Dick Cornish who would serve as the Prairie Fire's first team captain and Scott Law who had anchored a succession of previous Saskatchewan entries at earlier national championships led the Saskatchewan contingent from the Regina Rugby Union. Noah Cowin along with Adam Albeck were some other notable stars from Regina. Saskatoon was represented by the likes of versatile back row player Rob Belyk, tough-guy Dan Patenaude and football transplant Todd Lynden. Other homegrown Saskatchewan talent including Kevin Tkachuk (scored first Fire try) and prodigal son Eddy Fairhurst, both of whom would go on to represent Canada in international competition, came home to the Province to play for the Prairie Fire.
In addition to Tkachuk (current Canadian co-captain) and Fairhurst, the initial Prairie Fire team would attract other Canada under-23 prospects such as Garth Cooke (another subsequent Team Canada senior men's veteran), Greg Mosgrove, Brendan Traynor and Ben Charlton to their initial roster. Roean Coetzee, a flashy centre from South Africa, was the first of what would become a trend of outstanding international players to wear Prairie Fire colours. Subsequent years would see exciting players from around the globe join the club. The likes of South African Currie Cup players Deon Coetzer and Roean Coetzeer, Brendan O'Farrell a Trinidadian international, Fausto Rodrige a Colombian international who stayed on to make his home here, Mark Cross - Murray Smith and Andrew Cooney from New Zealand, from Australia Mark Sherwwod - Mat Scheibel and James Pritchard who went on to play for Canada in the 2OO3 World Cup, and Chilean international star Nicolas Aranciba just to mention a few that would wear the black and gold. Mark Lawson (current Canadian co-captain) along with John Cannon all cut their teeth playing with the orange and black prior to moving on to National Team stardom.In 2005 Shane Thompson the then most capped player in international seven a-side history who then moved on to coach our Canadain National Sevens Team, came to the Fire to help the rest of the league "feel the heat".
The regular-season began with much promise. With the arrival of the Fire's first regular-season home game, on May 23rd, it was apparent that General Manager Fix and his management team had done their homework. In front of a home crowd estimated to be 1,500 strong, the Prairie Fire came out and playing true to their name, put on a dominating offensive display against the Edmonton Gold that excited the home crowd. The Fire put up more than 60 points, executing Coach Suggit's offense-oriented attack to perfection in a lopsided home field victory. This was followed by a second consecutive convincing win the following week against the Manitoba Buffalo in Winnipeg as the Prairie Fire moved to 2 and 0 in their first season of play.
The defining game of the Fire's first season would come the following week against British Columbia's Valley Venom on June 6th, 1998. In the lead-up to this game the buzz around the city about its newest sports team had reached new levels. In addition to their strong on field performance, prospective new rugby fans had been attracted to Regina is Rugby Park not only by the exciting brand of Rugby being put out by Coach Suggit's charges, but also by the energy surrounding the event. With personalities like the team mascot, "the Flame", Sandy Monteith of Saskatchewan Roughrider Football fame fans were on their toes with his post-scoring fireballs. Equally entertaining was the attention garnered by the post-game social festivities which by now had registered with many on Regina's night life radar screen. A live band and face-to-face interaction with the players from both teams attracted both hard-core rugby fans and curious new recruits.
News of the team's early success even reached the floor of the Saskatchewan legislature where local M.L.A. and Saskatchewan Cabinet Minister John Nielsen made a public pronouncement in support of the Fire's early first season campaign encouraging his colleagues and members of the community at large to come out and support the Prairie Fire at their next home game.
With close to 2500 fans crammed into Regina Rugby Park the Prairie Fire and Valley Venom battled to the final minutes until a turnover-interception produced a try by the Valley Venom to seal a victory for the visitors and effectively bring to an end the Prairie Fires quest for a Western Division title. While the Fire would go on to defeat Vancouver in its final season home game, they would not recover from their loss to the Venom losing their subsequent two regular-season games on the road to the Crimson Tide and the Calgary Mavericks.
Nevertheless, it was clear that a solid on-field performance and outstanding fan support attracted by the Fire in its first season would establish a solid foundation for the club's future. Moreover, the Fire established a youth program and an under 21 and junior Fire roster which would prove invaluable to the club's future success. At the conclusion of its inaugural season, the Prairie Fire Rugby Football Club had sown the seeds that culminated in the 2005 team coached by Australian Murray Archibald playing for the RCSL champioship in Regina in front of 3500 enthusiastic fans.
CAN YOU FEEL THE HEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John Law