from TWU Rugby
LANGLEY, B.C. Trinity Western men’s rugby star Tamilore Awonusi (Dublin, Ireland) has been selected to represent Ireland for the upcoming HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series double-header in Spain.
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Rugby Canada have announced their search for a new CEO to replace Allen Vansen who ends his term at the end of January. They’ve hired SRI a company based out of London who also boasts World Rugby as one of their clients. Already the result is sounding predictable. There’s the worry they’ll “find” a Nigel Melville type of CEO who knows rugby in his home nation and thinks he/she knows about Canadian rugby, but in reality doesn’t have a clue. Just ask our neighbours to the south how the Nigel Melville years went (2007 – 2016), big plans, big deals, eventually bankruptcy.
NZ officially announced it’s withdrawing from the upcoming World Rugby 7s tournaments in Spain due to domestic COVID MIQ (Managed Isolation and Quarantine) regulations. World Rugby has made changes to the tournament in Malaga January 21-23 with Germany replacing NZ in the men’s competition and Belgium replacing NZ in the women’s competition.
Reid Watkins first shows up in our database in 2017 when the BC Bears won the national title over the Ontario Blues, the precursor to the Toronto Arrows. Reid Watkins was the backup #9 behind player/coach Phil Mack. Phil Mack would go on to be player/coach for Seattle in their two championship seasons. There’s a MLR/Seattle connection already.
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I had started this article in 2021, shortly after the men’s XVs program exited the World Cup qualifying with a loss to Chile. There were a lot of comments on where the solution lay. When I say “Canada’s Rugby Woes”, it’s specifically referring to the national men’s XVs demise. The national women’s XVs program is doing quite well.
Conor McCann was one of the bright stars in Canadian rugby a decade ago. He came into our view in the summer of 2011 when he helped Ontario win the Victoria International 7s U18 division. He made the tournament all-star team along with another top player, Justin Douglas, who went on to be a mainstay on the national 7s team. He played for the invitational DHL XV (Derek Hyde-Lay) that year, along with John Moonlight, Connor Braid, Conor Trainor, against the Canada U20 team, he would have been 17 or 18 at the time. He would go on and play for the Canada U20 team the next two years, 2012 and 2013. He compiled 60 points over the two tournaments making him Canadas all-time leading scorer in the JWRT at the time, a record that may still stand.
Rugby Canada have two job postings open, one for a Communications Manager and the other for a Marketing Co-Ordinator. The Communications job is Langford based and the Marketing one Vancouver based, although both state remote work as an option.
The demand for Pacific Pride players among the MLR and 7s program means there’s a lot of new faces to start the second half of the 21/22 season. If you look on Wiki at the list of Pacific Pride 20/21 players, there has been a lot of movement. Moved to the MLR are: Foster DeWitt, Dewald Kotze, Nik Hildebrand, Liam Murray, Tyler Rowland, Mason Flesch, James O’Neill, Michael Smith, Siaki Vikilani, Josh Thiel. Moved to European clubs are: Kaden Duguid. Moved to the 7s program are: Thomas Isherwood, Brennig Prevost, Alex Russell, Brock Webster.
The VIRU celebrated their centenary (1876-1976) in 1977 as part of the 1976-77 season. They created a program for the occasion that provides a compact historical record of the event. The event took place between May 17th and May 28th and featured four games, three played on the Island at Royal Athletic Park and one on the Mainland.
If you’re a player and looking for some insights on travelling and playing rugby, we have a Blog for you. It’s Travis Larsen’s new Blog, The Rugby Nomad.