The sternum level tackle height trial will be extended to the U20 Championship in 2026. The dates haven’t been announced but the 2025 tournament started June 29th and wrapped up July 19th. In 2026 the tournament takes place in Georgia and will be expanded from 12 teams to 16 teams with USA, Fiji, Japan and Uruguay being added.
There’s one week of PWR action left before the winter break, the season recommences January 30th. There were 13 Canadians in action, one less than last week. Most of the Canadians, 10, were in one match Exeter v Saracens. There are still a number of Canadians not showing up in the match day rosters, Sophie de Goede, Fancy Bermudez, Laetitia Royer, Julia Schell, Claire Gallagher are a few of the prominent players missing from this week’s rosters.
The Times based in London ran a recent article on Jamie Cudmore, it covers his fight with concussion awareness, his time at Clermont as a professional rugby player, his formative years in Squamish, his time with Rugby Canada, his current status as coach in France and Luxembourg, and his desire to come back to Canada one day as the men’s coach. It’s worth a read. We came across the article as graphic scans (jpg files) and used the wonders of Ai to transcribe it into text as the original article is behind a paywall. The article is below in graphic format and text.
There are 3 BC teams at the Global Sevens which begins next week in Auckland, December 19th to 21st, which will be 18th to 20th west coast time. MacDowell Rugby have a boys and girls team entered, and the BCRU have a girls team entered. The rosters are listed below. The MacDowell boys have the toughest schedule to start off, they face the NZ Fijians on Day 1. MacDowell girls face Samoa-NZ while the BC Bears face the Queensland Honey Bees. The full Day 1 schedule on the 3 fields is posted below. The tournament facebook page is here.
In the “why not” category, today’s story is Kevin Rouet taking up the role of Attack Coach with the Saracens while maintaining his role as Head Coach of the Canada Women’s XVs team. The next matches for the Canadian women’s XVs are likely part of the Pacific Four series which according to a NZ Rugby source will take place in April. The PWR season takes a break after March 28th, Round 16, and resumes Round 17 on May 30th. The only conflict may be around the end of March depending on when in April the Pacific Four begins. With 25 Canadian players in England taking part in the PWR it seems like a sensible move. The only question is who is monitoring the talent in Canada during this time. If there’s good communication between Rouet and the Provincial leads, like John Tait in BC, then this shouldn’t be an issue. There’s also the 7s coach, Jocelyn Barrieau, who reports to Rouet and deals with a lot of the University level players and upcoming talent. The women’s program seems to have their act together, which is why they’re #2 in the world.
With the BC Leagues on winter break until January 24th, the largest concentration of Canadians playing rugby right now is in the women’s Premier league in England. In October we counted 23 Canadians in the league, we’ve found out two more are heading over from the 7s program, Asia Hogan-Rochester (Sale) and Pam Buisa (Bristol).
A dry afternoon at Connaught with the busiest referee in Canada, Shanda Assmus, in charge brought the two west side rivals together again to see out the season’s first half. Early on the Ravens won a set decisively and that strength was a difference that served them well the rest of the way.
Abbotsford set the standard this year in Girls rugby winning both the U16 and U18 finals in comfortable fashion. CW won the Boys U18 title and Capilano won the Boys U16 title. The BCRU write-ups are posted below along with photos of the winning teams, courtesy of BOLD Photos by Shelly.
Canada defeated Fiji in the 5th place semi-final but lost to Japan in the 5th place final to finish 6th at the tournament. The two 6th place finishes have put them in 7th place overall in the standings. Canada have lost to Japan all three times so far this season which is a concern. Japan currently sit in 3rd place and are the surprise team of the season. Australia and NZ have already distanced themselves from the pack as the top two teams in the women’s division. In the men’s division South Africa, Fiji, New Zealand are all tied in top spot.
It’s the wrap up of the fall season, the last matches before the Dec/Jan winter break. Play resumes January 24th. UBC defaulted their match to Westshore, they’ve chosen to take a game in South Carolina versus USA #2 Life University. That puts Westshore top of the table going into the break, the Ravens have caught UBC in a 2nd/3rd place tie, Capilano sit in 4th place, Burnaby drop to 5th and the Bays claim 6th. The women’s Premier wrapped up their fall season last weekend.