The last early morning of the regular season, saw the KRC Senior Ladies leaving Exhibition Park at 5:30am this morning for Capilanos. After weeks of rain and water logged pitches, it was sunny skies and a relatively dry playing surface at Kahlanie Park.
Week 15 has wrapped with most teams only having 3 matches left in the regular season. Next weekend is the Vancouver 7s so there will be a break in the action before Week 16 resumes on March 14th. Ravens maintain their lead at the top, Westshore and UBC remain in a battle chasing 2nd place and a quarter-final bye. Capilano and James Bay remain in 4th and 5th place respectively and Burnaby reclaim 6th place with UVic having work to do in order to make the post season. In women’s Premier Westshore closed the gap on 1st place Lomas while CW dropped to 5th and Burnaby rose to 3rd with very little separating the top 5 teams.
It’s good news to hear there will be senior men’s rep competition this spring. Ontario are visiting BC for 3 matches, one against a regional team, Vancouver Island, before taking on the BC Bears for two games, one at Capilano and the other at Shawnigan Lake School.
It was Round 12 of the PWR in England, there were 18 Canadian players in action. There are six more rounds before the semi-finals with the top four teams participating. It looks as if Saracens and Gloucester will be in that top 4 with Exeter, Harlequins and Trailfinders battling for the remaining two spots. Sophie de Goede and Olivia Apps were missing from the Saracens roster, de Goede is returning from injury while Apps may possibly be headed back for the 7s in Vancouver in just over a week’s time.
Three weeks after an epic game at UBC these same teams took it up a notch at Jericho producing as good a regular season game as you will see in BC. The Ravens prevailed with five tries to UBC’s four but truly the teams are evenly matched and may be heading for a final meeting come playoff time.
Another early morning for the Kamloops Raiders as the Men and Women headed off to Ridge Meadows and Bayside respectively.
The Sharks from Bayside kicked off to the Raider Ladies under grey skies and cool temperatures at South Surrey Athletic Park. The Sharks came out flying and were very aggressive at the breakdown, causing problems for the Raiders. Both sides swapped possession initially with Milena Chambers, Riley Halvorson, and Mya Giardullo providing solid carries for the Raiders under significant Bayside pressure. Bayside eventually secured consistent possession and were the first to open the scoring, try was unconverted 0-5 Bayside.
Week 14 has wrapped up, the Ravens remain top of the table with Westshore, UBC and Capilano in pursuit. In Women’s Premier some mismatches as UBC hit their title defending form but Lomas still top the table. There were numerous national team and MLR level players in the rosters this week Andrew Coe, Josiah Morra, Reegan O’Gorman, Callum Botchar, Noah Flesch, Mason Flesch, Emerson Prior, Mark Balaski, Guiseppe du Toit and more.
A few items on the Editor’s desk this morning, UVic Vikes men’s team are in Portugal and they’ve won their first two matches. The BCRU has updated the penalties for infractions of the Player Eligibility Rules. There’s a high school player who has started a Petition to persuade BC School Sports to allow him to play rugby this season.
The women’s English Premiership just wrapped Round 11 last weekend and there were 16 Canadian players in action. Exeter had the largest contingent with all 5 of their players in the roster, next were Saracens and Ealing with 3 of the 7 Canadians in action. Still some big names missing like Sophie de Goede and Julia Schell. There’s still 5 weeks left before the April break for the Pacific Four tournament. Gloucester remains top of the standings with Saracens in 2nd and Exeter and Harlequins trailing. The top 4 teams go into the semi-finals in June.
This article is based on a YouTube video interview with Les Cusworth on the United Rugby Fans channel. You can find the full video here. I generally put interviews and podcasts through NotebookLM now to get an executive summary, I find it distills the interview to key points which from a time management point of view is helpful. Not everything in the Argentine model will work in Canada but there are some key points worth considering, basically it’s celebrating the amateur model based on local clubs, keeping travel down and bottom-up growth.