After watching the first matches on Day 2 where Canada’s women lost to France and the men to Kenya, there was a little bit of trepidation about the programs progress over the break. However by the end of the day with the women winning Gold and the men winning the Plate, it looked as if things were on course and as they were before COVID hit.
from World Rugby
– Fourteen international teams competing in Dubai on 2-3 and 8-9 April
– Combined event confirmed in Los Angeles over weekend of 25-27 June
– HSBC Paris Sevens Marcoussis event postponed
– World Rugby providing US$4 million funding for rugby sevens programmes and high-performance preparation events ahead of the Olympic Games
– Welfare and safety of players, officials and wider society remains top consideration
The new franchise, LA Giltinis, featuring Matt Giteau, Adam Ashley-Cooper and DTH continue to roll with an impressive 57-36 shellacking of defending champions, Seattle Seawolves. LA already have a +46 point differential with only 2 weeks gone. DTH wasn’t in the lineup this weekend, carrying a shoulder injury but wasn’t required as LA dominated. Seattle are 0-2 and one of the 3 winless teams in the competition. LA and Seattle both have a bye next week.
There are four games on Saturday and three of them will be streamed live without cost on therugbynetwork.com. The only match Canadian viewers won’t be able to watch on the The Rugby Network is the Toronto Arrows @ Utah match which requires a TSN subscription to watch it online on tsn.ca.
A University of Birmingham-led study of top-flight UK rugby playerscarried out in collaboration with the Rugby Football Union (RFU), Premiership Rugby, and Marker Diagnosticshas identified a method of accurately diagnosing concussion using saliva, paving the way for the first non-invasive clinical test for concussion for use in sport and other settings.
First off, kudos to the league and RugbyPass for getting all the games available online. You can see all six replays at therugbynetwork.com
The profiles of the 2020 Inductees are highlighted below in the Rugby Canada media release but we’ll add some notes on those we’ve had the pleasure to meet and sometimes work alongside as part of the BC rugby community.
There are 35 Canadians in action over the weekend (24 starting) in MLR matches. The Old Glory DC v NOLA match has been moved to Sunday due to COVID protocols.
from Rugby Canada
The Rugby Canada Maple Leaf Academy serves to facilitate the Development of future Olympians and National Team Athletes. Aspiring female athletes from across the country are recruited through various talent identification pathways, coming together to train full time in Rugby Canada’s high-performance environment at the Al Charron National Training Centre in Langford, BC.
The Rugby Network a collaborative effort between MLR and RugbyPass, the service owned by Sky Sport NZ, will provide live streaming of four MLR matches this weekend. The Toronto v Atlanta match will be blacked out in Canada since TSN will provide the live feed on TSN 2. Here is Saturday’s schedule with the Live Stream matches indicated.