Travis Larsen Starts New Blog: The Rugby Nomad
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.
Author Archive: BCRN
Starting New in ’22
New Year, New Hope for 2022: Four to Watch in Canadian Rugby
2021 was not a good year for Canadian rugby, there’s little doubt about that. The women’s 7s program imploded, shrapnel from that implosion took out a couple of national coaches who were expected to lead Canada forward, the men’s XVs failed to make the World Cup for the first time in its history. COVID crushed everything around it, in particular the national U20 programs and local club rugby. It wasn’t a good year at all.
2021 Year in Review – November/December
Year in Review – A Look Back at November/December 2021 Headlines: Vancouver Wave Win Coastal Cup, National Men’s XVs Lose to Portugal but Beat Belgium, National Women’s XVs Win 3 of 4 Matches on Tour, UBC Win National Men’s University Title, 2021/22 World Rugby 7s Series Kicks Off in Dubai
The Vancouver Wave won the inaugural Coastal Cup over the Pacific Pride in November. The BC clubs had an abbreviated fall season with hopes the spring would bring back some return to normalcy. It’s still wait and see on that front as even though the schedule was announced to start January 22nd there’s still uncertainty around the BC Health Authority policies in the new year.
2021 Year in Review – September/October
Year in Review – A Look Back at September/October 2021 Headlines: Canada Starts World Cup Qualifying Well with +13 Win Over USA in St. John’s But Lose Subsequent Games to USA & Chile to Exit World Cup Qualifying, Coastal Cup Kicks Off in BC, Abbreviated Vancouver 7s & Edmonton 7s Tournaments Held in September
September started well with Canada taking a +13 lead over USA in the World Cup qualifier in St. John’s. Unfortunately a week later Canada would lose 38-16 to USA to lose the series. They would play Chile next.
2021 Year in Review – July/August
Year in Review – A Look Back at July/August 2021 Headlines: LA win MLR Title, 3 Canadians Make All-Star Team, Canada Announce 30 Player Squad for Men’s XVs RWC Qualifiers, Olympic 7s Wraps Up and Controversy Continues, Coastal Cup Competition Introduced
The MLR wrapped up with LA winning the title. Three Canadians were selected on the MLR All-Star team for the season, Lucas Rumball and Ben LeSage from Toronto and DTH from LA.
2021 Year in Review – May/June
Year in Review – A Look Back at May/June 2021 Headlines: Sally Dennis Takes Over for Tim Powers as Chair of Rugby Canada Board, Men’s XVs Prepare for England/Wales Tests, MLR Reaches Week 15, Olympic 7s Teams Announced
[ed. previous articles are here: January, February, March, April]
As spring and summer rolled across the Canadian landscape there was some optimism that boots would be on the field soon. In BC that would mean outdoor non-contact rugby could begin. There were some high-performance matches involving the Pacific Pride and the Canada 7s team as they looked to remain sharp ahead of the Olympics. Jamie Cudmore was still coach of the Pride.
2021 Year in Review – April
Year in Review – A Look Back at April 2021 Headlines: Women’s 7s Program Turmoil Hits a Crescendo, MLR Week 6 Wraps Up, 7s Tournament in Dubai, UVic Posts Head Coach Position, Julianne Zussman Named as Olympic Match Official
With no local rugby due to COVID in April 2021 the rugby headlines were focused on MLR, the Olympics and the ongoing dispute between the women’s 7s team, head coach John Tait and Rugby Canada. That dispute was just reaching a crescendo with the women launching a powerful PR campaign on social media and through their media contacts, explaining their grievance. An independant investigator would be assigned to write a report. We have gotten hold of a copy of the report and will go into more details in the coming weeks as to its findings.
2021 Year in Review – March
Year in Review – A Look Back at March 2021 Headlines: Jeff Chan Becomes Canadian Rugby Foundation CEO, MLR Kicks Off Season Four, Winston Stanley Inducted Into Canadian Rugby Hall of Fame
We ran 18 stories in March 2021. One of the highlights was the appointment of Jeff Chan as CEO of the Canadian Rugby Foundation. The Foundation just announced (Dec 22nd) a donation in the amount of $11.65 million from Fletchers Field Limited (FFL). The Fletchers Fields rugby facility has been sold to the City of Markham but will continue to be used for rugby until October 2024. The member clubs have each setup a fund at the Foundation that will ultimately be used to help each club get reestablished in new facilities. The clubs are Aurora Barbarians, Markham Irish, Toronto Nomads, Toronto Saracens and Toronto Scottish.
BCRU Updates – December 2021
BCRU Updates on New Public Health Order in Effect December 22nd 2021
from BCRU
As of December 21, 2021, the Provincial Government of BC announced the following updated restrictions to the current Public Health Order that will come into effect at 11:59 PM on December 22, 2021 and are currently set to last until January 18, 2022.
2021 Year in Review – February
Year in Review – A Look Back at February 2021 Headlines: The Dominoes Start to Fall
We only ran 10 stories in February 2021 but one of them would impact Canadian rugby like no other. That of course was the women’s 7s players revolt against their coach John Tait. We still don’t know all the details, what were the complaints specifically, who was the instigator, were the internal processes followed? What we do know is Rugby Canada issued a vague statement, John Tait was removed as coach and Australian Mick Byrne named as interim coach. The independent investigator later concluded there was no abuse or bullying according to existing policy. The damage was done and the dominoes would start falling.