McGill women’s rugby team fundraises, reforms after being cut by university

After the McGill University women's rugby program was cut, players and coaches began fundraising and have relaunched the team.

The McGill Women’s Rugby team has had to be flexible going into this season, and it hasn’t been easy.

The players were blindsided in November when they learned they were one of the 25 McGill teams that lost funding after major budget cuts by the university.

“A lot of emotion... That was devastating. Really difficult to hear. But, yeah, we took it in stride,” said player Fianna Edgerton-Raymond.

With the help of alumni, the rugby players came up with a new game plan: fundraising.

“The primary goal of this campaign was to make sure that there would be continuity so that the team would be able to play in 2026,” said Emily Lai, one of the women behind the fundraiser.

They surpassed their goal and, to date, have raised more than $80,000.

Edgerton-Raymond says that money is already budgeted for the club’s basic needs.

“Running an athletic club is extremely, costly, whether it’s fuel expenses, athletic therapy and medical teams,” she said

When reached for a comment, a McGill spokesperson referred CTV News to a press release from November.

“Ongoing challenges related to resource requirements, facility space, budget constraints, and human resources capacity have been identified and made the decision to reduce the size of McGill’s competitive sports programming,” McGill said.

This means the players are no longer able to compete as a varsity team at this time and are now considered a student club, which they say presents some challenges.

“Instead of playing the teams we’ve been playing for the past decades, all the other universies, the teams in the league, we’re going to be having to find our own teams to play,” said Edgerton-Raymond.

Again, the team is turning to the public, and Lai says every bit of guidance helps.

The team is hosting an open call to the community on Feb. 19.

The players and coaches hope the teamwork that helped them on the field will result in one more win and save their game.

“We’re not going to give up on this team,” said Edgerton-Raymond.