Canada announced their men’s and women’s teams for the Olympics in July. Thirteen players are listed per team, with 12 selected for match day and 1 alternate. There’s no mention of who the non-playing alternate is on each squad. The USA women announced their roster earlier this month and identified an alternate plus two travelling reserves for a 15 player squad. The USA men haven’t announced their squad yet.
Mike Levitt has turned a love of rugby and a skill at writing into a post retirement career. He already has had local media articles published highlighting his books aimed at a youth readership. The Williams Lake Tribune article noted “Retired high school teacher and former Williams Lake rugby coach Mike Levitt has penned his second book about the sport: Rugby Rookies, released this month by Lorimer publishing.” The Kamloops This Week article opened with, “Kamloops author Mike Levitt split the uprights with his first kick at a childrens book.”
On National Indigenous Peoples Day it merits looking at what rugby is doing to help Indigenous Peoples in BC. That conversation would quickly turn to the Thunder Indigenous Rugby organization featuring former national team players Bobby Ross (Songhees Nation) and Phil Mack (Toquaht Nation) as leading figures. Director of Thunder Rugby is John Lyall, a rugby player for over 25 years, who is of Kwakwakawakw descent. They’re focused on creating opportunities through rugby for Indigenous youth.
Next weekend will be the last MLR action for many of the internationals who will be leaving for the July tests in Europe right after their matches. Some may be back in action for the final regular season weekend on July 17th.
The USA have named their women’s rugby 7s team travelling to Japan for the Olympics in July, 12 starters, 1 alternate and 2 travelling reserves.
There are two main points of interest to rugby clubs in BC in the attached BCRU news article.
Westshore RFC are looking for a coach to join their mens program. Contact Ray Barkwill at rbarkwill@gmail.com for more information.
It’s an interesting selection, first of all two players who weren’t even on the extended list announced two weeks ago are now on the team. Lucas Albornoz and Reegan O’Gorman, both second rows, weren’t mentioned in the extended list but now find themselves in the tour squad. It could have to do with their recent MLR performances or the fact two established second row players, Evan Olmstead and Kyle Baillie, are now “Unavailable for Selection”.
As part of the process to get the Canada 7s team some game time prior to the Olympics, they squared off against the national rugby academy, the Pacific Pride, on 3 consecutive weekends. This was the final weekend of action.
Eight of the teams have 4 matches left, with four teams having 5 matches left. Houston and Seattle are already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs in the West. LA and Utah are in firm control as the top two but Austin still has a fighting chance and San Diego an outside chance.