Club History

The Aurora Barbarians RFC (Barbs) celebrated there 70^th anniversary in 2020. The Club began as two separate rugby clubs: The Toronto Barbarians and the Aurora Rugby Club. The club officially became the Aurora Barbarians in 2002 when the two clubs successful merged.

The Aurora Barbarians philosophy is “A Club for All” and have focused on developing and leading Junior, Minor and Women’s programs to consistently rank among the largest membership clubs in Canada.

The Aurora Rugby Club was constituted in 1998, developing from the original Aurora Yorks which were formed in 1961 by John .T. P. Brown, a member of the Ontario Rugby Hall of Fame and a past president of the Ontario Rugby Union.

In 1949 rugby was resurrected in post-war Ontario by a group of British expatriates who banded together to form the Wanderers RFC. The following year, the group launched an intensive recruiting drive for players and drawing together a total of 80 would-be participants, set up three additional teams based in Toronto including the Barbarians

The club lead the development of junior rugby in the 70s and purchased a share of Fletcher’s Fields during this time. The club were at the forefront of the re-development of Fletcher’s Fields in the early 90’s, which lead to the construction of a stadium which brought International rugby matches to the GTA.

On the pitch, the club fielded a number of strong championship Senior Mens and youth teams in the 50’s 60’s,70’s and 80’s. After the merger in 2002, the Aurora Barbarians enjoyed a string of success at the Senior Mens level. The club captured five straight league championships, three McCormick Club Championships and made at total of seven McCormick Cup appearances from 2006-2013.

The Senior Women were a similar dominant group with three OWL championships from 2012 to 2016. The club has also seen success from their U-18 Boys and Girls program having won a number of Provincial Championships

The Barbs have strong old Boys network of “Black Sheep” supporters. There were notable tours in the 60s and 70’s to USA and Caribbean destinations; in the 80’s to Vancouver, California and Chicago; in the 90s and 2000’s to Las Vegas and NY, 2010’s to NYC, Ohio and 2020’s to Boston, NYC to name a few