Local Star Rugby player

Robert Paterson

Mahalia Robinson, from Fulford, now regularly plays for Canada in the International Sevens Women’s Rugby Series. In December 2024, Canada ended the series, ranking fourth in the world.

For Mahalia, it all started at school. A graduate of Knowlton Academy, Mahalia went on to Massey Vanier, where she played on the girls’ rugby team coached by Ben Page. She then went to Concordia. Here, she played for the Stingers, where she became a star and team Captain. In the 2022-23 season, she scored all 24 points for Concordia in a bronze medal match against the Carleton Ravens.

For three summers, she also played for the Brome Lake Ducks. Massey Vanier has since shut down its women’s rugby program, removing an important entry point to the sport and making it difficult for the Ducks to field a woman’s team.

With her stellar record, she hopes to play for Canada again in May 2025 against New Zealand and then Australia in a warm-up series before the World Cup, which will be held in the UK in August. Canada’s women have consistently done well in this tournament, and won silver in 2014.

Often playing Scrum Half or Full Back, both play-making roles, Mahalia has developed her strategic skills on the rugby field.

“These roles don’t require me to be big. I am small, sparky and hard to catch,” she told Tempo, “More importantly, I see spaces before they exist.”