There were 28 Canadians in action in Round 16, 15 starting and 13 in reserves. There’s one week left in the regular season, four teams from each conference go to the playoff round, so in the East NOLA and Anthem are out, in the West it will be either Seattle or San Diego depending on Round 17 results.
It could have been worse, Canada were down 42-0 at 35 minutes into the first half and a point per minute 80-0 hiding wasn’t out of the question. Fiji were playing a high tempo game and Canada didn’t have their heads in the game. Fortunately half time was coming up, a time to regroup, and make some changes. It was a good time for Josh McIndoe to insert himself into the match, picking up an errant Fiji pass that went to ground and take it to the try line. Canada at least finished the half on a high note, down now only 42-7.
The BC Provincial High School Championships wrapped up on Saturday with St. George’s defeating rivals Shawnigan 31-12 to win Gold in AAA Boys. In AA Boys it was Collingwood over Robert Bateman 19-15. In Girls AAA it was G.P Vanier 18-10 over Gleneagle and in Girls AA it was D.W Poppy over Shawnigan 17-7. The full results can be viewed here.
The Island Blue team wrapped up the best of 3 series winning the second game 41-24 to take a 2-0 lead in the series. As in game #1 the half time score was close 12-7 but the Island squad pulled away in the second half to extend the score to 41-7 with 10 minutes remaining. The Mainland team scored a few tries to finish off the match and make the scoreline closer at 41-24.
Well the BCRU have gone down an interesting path this time in their selection of CEO. Welcome to Matthew Carter, as the BCRU media release highlights, former Lotus F1 CEO and Business Development Director for Lille Olympique Sporting Club, a professional soccer team in France. Very impressive stuff that happened between 2013-2018. He hails from Coventry, UK and before his high profile Lotus F1 position he was a senior investment manager with Genii Capital and Bridgehouse Capital. As the BCRU states, “over 25 years of experience in venture capitalism, business development and sports management.”
Rugby Canada announced today that Sean White will be leaving his role as men’s 7s coach at the end of his contract in July. The status of the men’s 7s program is really up in the air, they didn’t directly qualify for the Division 2 series which came with some World Rugby funding, they likely won’t be getting much money from Own the Podium as they don’t look like an Olympic contender at the moment. They probably will compete at the RAN 7s, there’s been no date announced for that, the winner of that tournament will compete at the Division 3 tournament where 2 teams will advance to the Division 2 series.
It was a good result for Canada, exceeded expectations I would say based on U20 results in recent years. Samoa are ranked #14 in the world, Canada #24, so there’s some hope in the young players coming through. The match was in the balance in the first half, the commentator remarked how the lead had changed 6 times.
With 2 weeks of the regular season left, Houston and Utah are tied for points at the top of the West conference and New England tops the East conference. There were 25 Canadian players in action, 14 starting and 11 in reserves. Noah Flesch made the MLR Team of the Week for Chicago.
Games This Week
Sr Boys Provincial Championships Wednesday May 28 to 31. Quarterfinal Matchups:
Shawnigan v Abbotsford
Quw’utsun v Kelowna
Oak Bay v Carson Graham
Claremont v Lake City
SMUS v Argyle
Brentwood v Charles Tupper
May 24th 1987 was Canada’s 1st Rugby World Cup match. The game was against Tonga and Canada won 37-4, it was played in Napier, NZ in front of 7,000 fans. A try was worth 4 points then so Canada scored 7 tries to Tonga’s 1, Canada added 3 conversions and 1 penalty. Scoring for Canada were winger Pat Palmer of UBCOB (2T), centre Paul Vaesen of JBAA (2T), Rowers Ian Stuart at centre (1T), CW’s Flanker Rob Frame (1T) and a penalty try. Converting was CW’s Gareth Rees (1C), and JBAA’s (later Velox) fullback Mark Wyatt (2C). Gareth Rees also added a penalty.