Forty-nine years of rivalry between these two fraternal clubs resumed before a big crowd at Jericho for the start the BC Premier season. The game did not disappoint as the rain held off and the conditions allowed for open rugby, though the structure, ball retention and decision making on both sides may not have been at peak season form.
The Women’s World Cup has progressed as many predicted, the final four being England, NZ, Canada, France, the top four ranked teams. The semis will see England v Canada and then NZ v France. England are considered heavy favourites to claim the title, they’re on a 29 game winning streak in international rugby.
It was a competitive Week 1 as the average point differential in the six games was 8 points, 13 being the highest and 3 the lowest. Week 2 sees some great matchups, four teams go into Week 2 tied at the top with bonus point wins, Ravens, Pride, Lomas and Vikes.
It has been a while, it seems, since a Canadian men’s XVs team has won a game against anyone besides Belgium. This win was much needed for morale and confidence.
The MLR officially confirmed the Giltinis from LA and the Gilronis from Austin will be out of the MLR competition in 2023. Both teams, owned by Australian Adam Gilchrist, were kicked out of the playoffs last year due to, apparently, violating league rules. These violations were wideley considered to be salary cap violations, exceeding the league rules on player salaries. LA and Austin were the top two teams in the standings in the Western Conference and were contenders for the title. LA had a number of Canadian players including DTH, Lindsey Stevens, Ben Lesage, Djustice Sears-Duru and Corey Thomas.
On Saturday the Surrey Beavers Ruck for the Cure event raised a record total of over $ 16,500 for Cancer research and to support some local survivors. This was the 9th Annual event for the Beavers and their first Ruck for the Cure event since Covid19.
Canada booked their place in the quarter-finals next weekend, they’ll face the USA again in the #2 v #7 match. In other action will be #1 NZ vs #8 Wales, #3 England v #6 Australia and #4 France v #5 Italy.
This wraps up the BC Premier Regional season, the BC Premier kicks off next weekend. We believe the Pacific Pride won the Coastal Cup even though they lost the match today to UBC, both teams have 21 points but the Pride have the better point differential both in the league and head to head. We’ll check with the team coaches and verify that later.
Even though it was billed as a development tournament, the first match saw both teams starting almost full international sides. Canada had close to 200 caps in their starting XV. The match was dominated by the referee who handed out 9 yellow cards, 5 to Brazil and 4 to Canada. Both teams scored 3 tries but Chile won with 15 points from penalties, compared to 6 from Canada. Chile were perfect on their conversions, while Canada missed one. The difference, 11 points, 36-25.
[ed. update the sessions and selections are open to boys born 2004 to 2006.]
from BCRU [with updates]
Calling all BC U17 & U18 (born 2004 to 2006) Boys who want to claim their spot on the Elite Youth 7s Team headed for New Zealand!