MEN’S TEAM
Canada lost to USA in the 5th place semi-final and ended up in a 7th/8th place tied with Ireland for 10 series points. South Africa won their 3rd straight tournament and remain top of the standings. Canada are in 11th place and closed the gap on Spain (10th) to one point and on Kenya (9th) to two points.
The Canada Sevens in Vancouver have changed their dates, gone is the February 26-27 date, due to COVID concerns. The tournament has been moved to April 16-17, the Easter long weekend.
The BCRU have updated their schedule page. The men’s Premier schedule has been rejigged with the start now January 29th instead of January 22nd and the February 26th weekend, formerly reserved for the Canada 7s, has now been filled.
Malaga 7s
The news keeps getting better for Canada’s women’s team at Malaga, first NZ were replaced by Poland in their pool, then Fiji dropped out and weren’t replaced so it’s an automatic 3 points for the bye. It now comes down to Canada v USA for top of Pool B and 2nd place. The men haven’t been as fortunate as none of the changes affect Pool D. Jamaica replacing Samoa go into Pool C and Fiji were in Pool A.
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.
[editor’s comments below]
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.