[ed. photo gallery can be viewed here.]
by Lisa Cooper
On Friday, May 12th, thirty-two teams from sixteen elementary schools descended onto the dandelion covered fields of Gordon Head Middle School, for the 49th annual Victoria Mini Rugby Tournament.
[ed. Noah will send updates every 2 weeks so check back to read the complete series.]
by Noah Bain
Hello to whomever is reading this. Thanks for tuning in to BC Rugby News and thanks to Mark for reaching out.
As a short introduction, my name is Noah Bain and I am from Abbotsford, British Columbia. After graduating from the University of Victoria last year and finishing 2nd place at the CUMRCs (Canadian University Championships), I was lucky to be involved with the Mens 7s program for a short stint. Following this, I moved to Vancouver to progress my career and joined the UBCOB Ravens Rugby Club (fitting as a UVic Alumnus, I know). During this past season, I was contacted by Sean White, Interim Head Coach of Canada 7s, who introduced me to the wonderful David Jackson (Jacko), who resides on the East Coast in Halifax. Jacko is from New Zealand and presented me with the opportunity to join a Premier side in New Plymouth, Taranaki.
We had covered this in a May 3rd article but Rugby Canada made their official announcement today. If you want to get some insights into his work with Italy, listen to the Irish podcast embedded below. It was recorded February 2023 and has some candid views on his recent work in Italy. Based on that I’m anticipating he’ll be putting a significant amount of emphasis on the 17-19 age group in his development plans. It will be interesting to follow his progress and see if he can create successful high performance development structures in Canada.
This is the first year the U20 women’s teams are launching after COVID. They are on a fully pay to play model which has the potential to keep some players out of the pathway at this critical time in their development. That is where the newly started Accelerate Fund has stepped up to help. The fund currently is set up as an annuity looking to raise 2 million by 2025, all the money to go towards supporting Women’s Age Grade Rugby. All funds will be matched up to $500K. There is an upcoming national U20 selection camp at UBC, it is the first time there will be a national age grade XVs assembly for women since 2019.
MEN
After 2 great games on Day 2, Canada couldn’t get it together on Day 3, looking completely disorganized in the first half against Argentina and going down 26-0 after 7 minutes. They were missing Matt Oworu and that may be a testament to how important he is to the team. In the second match against France they shook up the roster and gave many of the subs the start. At this point 3rd or 4th matters less than evaluating who can step up next weekend. Jack Carson and David Richard stood out as they went into the half down 7-5. Canada kept it close in the second half with a Brock Webster try, down 14-12, then it was all France.
Canada lost to Spain 21-9 at the U20 level to finish their tour to Uruguay. They lost their first game to Uruguay 21-16. The roster for the two matches was the same except for the injury to starting lock Sol Jacques.
About BLRC
Burnaby Lake Rugby run 3 senior Mens teams, a Senior Premier Womens team & a growing mini & junior section. All 4 of our senior teams enjoyed successful seasons & made the playoffs & our U19 boys successfully toured Scotland & England in March 2023.
We ran a survey on May 1st about an MLR team in BC, we had 236 respondents and here are the results. You’ll notice a permanent link in the right column on the home page as we’ll continue to monitor survey results during the year and provide updates, the next update will come when we reach 500 entries. We’ll also do a draw at the end of each month for a Gilbert TR4000 rugby ball.
Canada lost to host Uruguay 21-16 in the first match of their tour, they’ll play Spain on May 13th before returning home. Canada were behind 7-6 at half time.
Only four matches in the MLR this week. San Diego furthers their lead in the west (49) going 10 points ahead of Seattle (39) who have a game in hand. New England continues to lead the east (38) with Old Glory taking 2nd (29) and NY holding onto 3rd place (28).