Eastern junior prop Jaki Brophy said Canadian rugby, compared to American rugby, is more prevalent.

She would know because Brophy is from Chemanius, British Columbia.

Rugby in Canada is more popular than in the United States because there are more people playing at a younger age and it offers more competition.

The level of competition is so stiff in Canada Brophy said, that in retrospect she probably would not have come to Eastern.

This is because Brophy faced better competition in Canada than the teams Eastern plays.

“It (Eastern) was what I had found at the time, it is what appealed to me and I’m now happy to be here,” Brophy said.

She has had the privilege of playing against top competition in British Columbia, which has gained her a reputation on the team as a “hard-hitter and a fierce competitor,” said sophomore wing Samantha Manto.

Brophy lived in British Columbia, but has dual-citizenship and grew up in San Francisco until she was 11 years old. At that age, she was introduced to rugby.

Brophy played high school rugby at Chemainus secondary school.

She wanted to keep playing rugby after high school, and that’s how she found Eastern. Brophy looked up rugby scholarships on the Internet and happened to find Eastern and soon there after, talked to head coach Frank Graziano.

“I contacted other schools, but they really didn’t have much mentioned,” she said. “I actually found Eastern through an article that I just happened to open and they (the article) were talking about Eastern’s rugby program and it looked like the most professional one.”

Rugby in Canada, Brophy said, is not much different in the way rugby is played in the states.

“Basically, the biggest difference between rugby here and rugby in Canada is that its not really developed in the states,” she said.

Dave Brown, director of development at the British Columbia Rugby Union said that there are cultural differences, not only with rugby, but also with sports in general between Canada and the U.S.

“Culturally, sports are so much better ingrained in the U.S. with all the major sports: football, baseball, basketball,” Brown said. “Our national sport is ice-hockey, but in British Columbia, rugby is a strong community sport.”

Brown also said that Canadian rugby is one of the fastest growing high school sports for women in the British Columbia area.

“Historically, BC has a foothold here over 100 years in agreement with local government to fully support the use of public facilities whereas in the U.S., most teams have to pay for things such as travel and finding available field space,” Brown said.

In Canada, Brown said rugby surprisingly, is not covered much by the media even in British Columbia. Brophy’s hometown is one of the hotbeds for major events such as the Church Hill Cup, which takes place every summer. This tournament brings in teams like England, the U.S. and Canada.

While the sport in the U.S. is still trying to gain popularity, that is not the case in Canada

“Again, its just going down to numbers,” Brophy said. “There’s more women who play rugby in Canada.”