Rugby Canada released their 58 player list for the East v West camp taking place this week in Guelph, Ontario. The RC press release is appended below. It’s interesting to breakdown the BC numbers.
from BCRU
The final round of regular season fixtures now played, close to 30 Clubs have booked their spots in the BC Rugby Senior League Playoffs with some mouth-watering clashes coming up over the next few weeks.
In the “about time” department, a Canadian player and coach has been named to the senior men’s coaching team. It’s as assistant coach but hopefully it’s just a matter of time before he takes over the top job in sevens. Next step will be to name an assistant XVs coach to take over Kingsley’s job when he leaves.
April 9
Toronto Arrows 32 v Old Glory DC 27 @ York Lions Stadium 9am PT
Toronto are 4th in the East at 4-4. It’s an all Canadian front row this week with Keith, McRogers and Rowland. Second row is Mike Sheppard and Paul Ciulini, loose forward Kyle Baillie and James O’Neill. Riley de Nardo starts at scrum half, an all Canadian backline with du Toit, Richardson in the centres, Voralek and Sheridan on the wings and McCann at fullback. A season high 13 Canadian starters. On the bench Quattrin, Rumball, Nott, McRorie, Jones, Kelly.
Canada ran out to their worst result this season finishing last, tied with Scotland for 15th/16th place. They receive only one series point. Fiji won the tournament defeating NZ in the final.
This is the final week of the regular season and the quarter-final matchup possibilities are coming into focus. UBC will finish #1 and will host either JBAA or Lomas. The 2nd/3rd place battle is a little more murky as the BCRU has CW and Ravens tied on Points Ratio .833 [ed. BCRU have now removed the standings table] but CW listed at 24 points and Ravens at 21 points apparently due to a points reduction in a Ravens match, an action that’s being contested by the Ravens. It’s likely the winner of the CW v Ravens match will finish in 2nd pending any competition committee decisions. Burnaby and Capilano are vying for 4th/5th, again complicated by the uneven schedule. UVic looks good for 6th, Rowers 7th and Bays and Lomas battling it out for 8th.
from Mike Devlin
BLRC on the road to Kamloops by Simon Smoldon
This past Saturday the 1st Div Men & Women of the BLRC boarded the 6am bus to Kamloops for 2 highly anticipated games of rugby at the fantastic new clubhouse & fields that the Raiders have set up. For many of our new players this was a 1st time experience & many were in awe at the landscape & vistas that the locals take for granted…
by Peter MacDonald
A tough game against the Pride went the Ravens way at the end but the Pride gained big respect for taking the game to the Ravens all day long. With the score tied 17-17, and five minutes left, the Ravens fullback Aaron McLelland was served up a room service high clearing kick which he fielded centrally 35 metres out from the Pride line. Moving right and scanning things he made a gap and it was sayonara as he took a direct line at top speed to score the winning try. The Pride could have tied it up three minutes later but for a saving tackle by fly half Jesper Mellish so the Ravens ran out winners in a game that the Pride controlled for much of the day.
April 1
Utah Warriors 25 v San Diego Legion 40 @ Zions Bank Stadium 7pm PT
Utah in 6th place in the West have no Canadians in the roster.
San Diego, second in the West, feature Michael Smith as starting openside with Jason Higgins as reserve scrum half.
Michael Smith was the top tackler in the game with 22 tackles made.
We were 5 for 5 on the predictions this week putting us at 31 out of 37 for the season and 84 %, up from 81% last week.