[ed. updated the Rugby Canada Report appended below]
Rugby Canada issued an update on their status after they completed their 2019 AGM (virtually) this past weekend, the financials should be out by Wednesday. That report is posted below. Also we’ll add a few background notes in a paragraph below.
The Crusaders were hit with their first loss this weekend but are still in the driver’s seat. Blues in second have 17 points with only two games left, Hurricanes in third have 16 points with 2 games left. The Crusaders at 19 points have three games left so their magic number is 28 points to win the competition, that’s 9 points from 3 games. They’re still clear favourites.
from World Rugby
The World Rugby Executive Committee has today recommended a revised temporary 2020 international calendar with the express objective of optimising recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic for the betterment of the global game at all levels.
World Rugby came out with an interesting document, a summary of the U20 JWRT.
World Rugby Summary of U20 JWRT
We took a look at the most capped players (senior caps) from each JWRT. Only 2 Canadian players showed up on the list, Lucas Rumball (35 caps) who played in the 2014 and 2015 JWRT and Djustice Sears-Duru (52 caps) who played in the 2013 JWRT. Counting up the players from other countries who topped the list, Portugal had 11 players, Uruguay had 7 players, Georgia had 6 players, Namibia had 4 players, Russia had 3 players.
The Crusaders, even though they had a bye, took a step closer to clinching the title as the Blues, their closest competitor, faltered on the weekend. Now the Crusaders are 5 points clear with a game in hand. The remaining teams have 3 games left so Crusaders only need 11 points from their 4 remaining games to clinch the title.
A couple of questions we’ll look at in this article. How much will it cost to play touch rugby in BC, will there be contact in any provinces and where is rugby currently being played in the world.
The Crusaders continue to roll and Clay’s unshakeable faith in the Blues has allowed Mark and AaronT to close the gap on him in the prediction contest.
Rugby Hive Podcast
The Rugby Hive Podcast was founded by World Rugby commentator Dallen Stanford and international 7s coach Robin MacDowell in July 2020. The two co-hosts played against each other on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series with Stanford representing the USA and MacDowell, Canada.
[ed. updates the Rugby League RTSP is now up on ViaSport and available through their website.]
As everyone knows it’s pretty quiet on the rugby front in BC right now, the question is what will happen in September? A lot depends on provincial government health regulations and specifically how ViaSport interprets those for sport through their guidelines.
Clay was the only one to get 2 for 2 on the predictions this week and has an impressive 88% accuracy rate so far this season. Compare that to the @Rugby4Cast account on Twitter who do a detailed statistical analysis of the games, they are at 50% so far this season.