Clearwater Cup carnival of rugby sevens

The Clearwater Cup is an annual rugby sevens tournament held each spring in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This years event, held on May 14 at the Calgary Rugby Union (CRU), attracted 34 teams from High Schools in the city and further afield in the province. The competition had twelve Senior Boys and Junior Boys teams, and ten Senior Girls teams.  The organizers are reckoning they can attract even more teams next year. That just might happen given the rapidly growing interest in rugby sevens as the sport gets set to re-appear in the Olympics in Rio this coming August.

According to the website, the Clearwater Cup High School Rugby Tournament was originally conceived in partnership between The Calgary Senior High School Athletic Association, The Calgary Rugby Union, and The Calgary Booster Club.  It takes its name from the original, Gaelic meaning of Calgary as “clear running water”. That mane was given  by Colonel James McLeod in 1876 after a place on the Isle of Mull, Scotland.

Today was a clearly a fine day to celebrate the growing flow of interest around rugby sevens in Calgary.

For more rugby photos, see: J. Ashley Nixon Communications