Canada finished 6th in Dubai with a 5th place semi-final win over France but a loss to USA in the 5th place final. Canada fly to Cape Town now for next weekend’s 7s tournament, they’ll be in a pool with Australia, Japan and France. Krissy Scurfield came out in the 9th minute of the Japan match and didn’t show up in the roster for the France and USA matches.
World Rugby has released the tournament schedules for the Div 2 and Div 3 tournaments which is of interest to the Canada men’s 7s who are entered in the Div 3, SVNS 3, tournament after winning the RAN 7s tournament last weekend. They now know they will play in the 17–18 January 2026 tournament being held in Dubai. They know they have to finish top 2 against these other teams: Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong China, Italy, Madagascar, Samoa, Tonga. It’s an achievable goal. If they can finish top 2 in that tournament then they move on to the Div 2 tournaments being held in Nairobi, Montevideo and Sao Paulo in Feb/March.
It was a gumboot day for the fans but the pitch was in good shape for this anticipated tilt between two upper table hopefuls and long-time rivals. The first half was an even affair with the Ravens cashing in for tries at 15 and 18 minutes and the home team being held off the scoresheet. Ravens prop Louis Kassapian finished off a Billy Wickham quick tap and run for the first try and left winger Jean-Claude Koorsten put on a burst down the line after a long miss pass from Andrew Coe for the second score. Burnaby had its chances but after Napo Bolaca quick tapped and beat the line his long pass to send his support free was knocked on and at 40 minutes another threat ended with Wickham jackalling at the tackle near the Ravens’ line.
The BC Club youth competition takes place in the fall at the U14, U16 and U18 level for both boys and girls. The rugby high school competition takes place in the spring. The club youth leagues have reached the semi-final stage with the quarter-finals wrapping up last weekend. The U16 and U18 Provincial finals will take place December 7th in Langley where it will be the Mainland champion v Island champion for the Provincial title. The quarter-final results are listed below along with the regional final (Provincial semi-final) match ups for this weekend. Last year’s final results are posted here.
Another double KRC away game, and another 5:45 am leave for both Senior squads.
Canada won the Rugby Americas North 7s tournament scoring 225 points in total and conceding 14. They finished Day 3 with a semi-final win over T&T 40-0 and a final over Barbados 31-0. They’ll now await details on the next tournament which will see regional tournament winners vie for two spots to go to the next level. The SVNS 3 tournament is supposed to be in January and includes 8 teams, the top 2 will advance to SVNS 2 tournaments in February and March.
It was Week 8 of the BC Premier season with 3 matches on tap, plus an exhibition with the Chicago Hounds development team in town to take on the Pride. The women’s Premier also had 3 matches this weekend. A couple of upsets in men’s Premier with Burnaby taking down defending champs Ravens and CW getting their first win over the visiting Meraloma.
It was as close to a win that Canada got this November, 16-16 at the half, and their scrum wasn’t battered as in the first two matches. It was Canada’s there for the taking, down 6 points, the man advantage, the ball 15 metres out from the goal line in front of the posts, four minutes left. Then one attempt at a clever, no look, pass that’s intercepted and suddenly they’re defending inside their 22 with time expiring. That play seemed to epitomise the Canada’s men’s XVs mindset right now. Instead of playing high percentage, patient rugby in this situation, it’s a 50-50 go for glory option that’s chosen. Is it a lack of confidence, a lack of leadership, a lack of communication? The game goes into the “could have won but didn’t” category, an improvement over the “never in the game” category.
A soggy November morning gave way to a dry afternoon and some good rugby for the players and stalwart fans at Jericho. The Ravens dominated possession for the first 25 minutes tallying two tries the first through Noah Bain beating his man outside and sending a grubber across the line to be touched down by Mark Wandeto and the second a Joe Locke line break and pass to Jake Tierney who also grubbered and then jackalled to regain possession for Cole Keffer who jinked about and dove in for a 14-3 Ravens lead.