Author Archive: MarkB

BC Rugby Weekend of January 31st 2026

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BC Premier Week 12 Predictions & Rosters: CW @ Burnaby, Pride @ Lomas, Ravens @ UBC, UVic @ Westshore, Caps @ Bays – Women’s Premier Ravens @ Thunderbirds, CW @ Burnaby, Abby @ Lomas, Westshore v Seattle

It’s Week 12 of the BC Premier with 5 matches in Men’s Premier and 4 in Women’s Premier. The top 3 teams Westshore, Ravens, UBC could see some movement with UBC facing Ravens and Westshore hosting the Vikes. The Bays and the Vikes are in a battle for the 6th and final playoff spot, the Bays host the Caps. In Women’s Premier the top 4 teams are all in action and only separated by 4 points in the standings.

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Canada Women’s U21 – January 2026

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Head Coach Dean Murten Names Women’s U21 Team for March Tour of Ireland and England

Dean Murten has made his selections for the women’s Canada U21 team to travel to Ireland and England in March for games against Ireland, the British Army and England. Last year Canada sent a U20 team to Ireland and split the games, winning the first and losing the second. Ireland added some older players for the 2nd match. Since the age has been increased a year, there are a number of players returning, 11 according to Gemini when we asked them to compare lists. Two of the players from the 2025 U20 tour went on to represent Canada in 7s, Adia Pye and Kennedi Stevenson.

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Rugby Canada Pathways – January 2026

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Rugby Canada Announces Women’s XVs Pathway: BC Left with Invitation Camps, no Competitions

Rugby Canada announced its pathway process to the women’s XVs team and BC may have been left out in the cold. Ontario/Quebec have a recognized competition with 13 games, 10 indoor, 3 outdoor. Alberta have a 4 game competition, all indoors. The only province where you can play rugby in February/March outdoors, BC, gets 4 camps, no competitions. Three of the camps are on a Sunday and one on a Saturday in conflict with the women’s BC Premier schedule. The level of disrespect is palpable. With so many new faces coming through the Rugby Canada high performance management team, its difficult to know where the decision making on this rests.

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Players in the News – January 2026

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Former Canada 7s Player Jordan Kozina Loses Home and Possessions in Fire – GoFundMe Setup

A sad story today about a former Canada sevens player (World Cup 2009) , Jordan Kozina, who had his home burn down before the holidays and besides losing all his possessions, also lost his two dogs who had been long time companions. As well as representing Canada he also was a player at UVic and represented Ontario and his home club Brantford Harlequins. His sister set up a GoFundMe page to help Jordan get back on his feet, this is the link. The GoFundMe article and some of Jordan’s rugby accomplishments are listed below.

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Rugby in the BC Interior – Trail RFC

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Reviving the Trail Rugby Football Club – Cory Walker’s Story

I love this story on several levels, raising the profile of rugby in BC, growing it outside the traditional mainland/island areas and featuring in a company in-house publication. Cory played at Velox/Westshore and when he moved to Trail he worked to revive the rugby club. He works at Teck Metals (part of Teck Resources) and they ran the story in their in-house publication “After Ours” and we’ve reprinted it below.

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CanWest 7s 2026 – Edmonton

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UBC Win First Tournament of CanWest 7s Series in Edmonton

UBC continue to roll in 7s as they take the first of three tournaments in the CanWest 7s series. They are three-time defending champions and it looks like they may be in line for a four-peat with UVic their closest rivals. Adia Pye scored 9 tries for UBC in the tournament, Kiki Idowu scored 5 tries, Lana Dueck 4 tries, Olivia Sahabura 3 tries, Piper Logan 2 tries. For UVic, who came 2nd, top scorers were Ivy Poetker with 7 tries, Olivia Newsome 4 tries, Vanessa Chiapetta 3 tries, Maggie Mackinnon 2 tries. For TWU who came 3rd, Kelsa Kempf scored 6 tries, Kamryn Howlett 4 tries, Ava Van Santen 3 tries. The next tournament is in Victoria on Feb. 7th and 8th.

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Kamloops Rugby Updates – January 2026

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Kamloops Match Reports by William Shaw: Women Defeat Meraloma, Men Win Over Brit Lions

On a chilly January 24th morning, the KRC Senior Men and Women boarded the bus from Exhibition to start both of their second half campaigns.

The Senior men exited the bus at John Oliver Park for their Division 2 clash with the Brit Lions while the Senior women continued on to Connaught Park for this Division 1 match with the Meralomas.

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BC Rugby Weekend of January 23rd 2026

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BC Premier Week 11 Results: Caps 53 – Pride 14, CW 14 – Ravens 29, UBC 34 – Bays 26, Lomas 19 – Vikes 31, Westshore 35 – Burnaby 34; Women’s Premier Westshore 39 – Burnaby 36, CW 27 –  Ravens 19

The spring season returned with some close matches. The Westshore v Burnaby Premier matches were decided by a total of 4 points, 1 point in the men’s match and 3 points in the women’s match. Both full match videos are posted below courtesy of the Westshore youtube channel. The Vikes win and the Bays loss sees the Vikes move up to 6th place, the important last playoff spot. Caps crushed the Pride by 39 points, a tough start to the spring season for the Rugby Canada academy team. Ravens and UBC, last year’s finalists, continue their winning ways and face off against each other next weekend.

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Rugby Canada T1 Rugby

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Rugby Canada Launches T1 Rugby as Official Non-Contact Version of Rugby

Rugby Canada put out an article two days announcing their T1 Rugby initiative. It’s another version of touch rugby that World Rugby came out with late in 2023. It’s taken a couple of years to get off the ground it appears. There may be a bit of confusion around the various versions of touch rugby, the standard Touch Rugby game which has its own governing body in Canada. Rookie Rugby which Rugby Canada has been using for years, and now T1 Rugby.

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Rugby News from Around BC & The World- January 2026

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From CanWest 7s to Six Nations Touching Down on U18 Tours, Rugby Camps, Ravens Women, Bayside Hosting, European Championship Round of 16, SVNS Series, Atlantic Privateers

We took a look around social media today to pick up rugby news of interest to the BC Rugby community. We found posts about the Ravens women’s program, the CanWest 7s series, U18 tours by Abbotsford and Thunder Rugby, Spring Break Camp by Vikes, Bayside Saturday and Sunday hosting, European Champions Cup Round of 16 and the Six Nations Schedule, SVNS Series Singapore, SVNS Vancouver Tickets, Atlantic Privateers roster vs Pacific Pride.

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