Canada drew with NZ 27-27 in an exciting match that saw NZ tie the match at the final whistle. The Canadian Press match report is posted below as well as the full match video courtesy of the NZRugbyVidz2027 account on YouTube. Canada retain their #2 ranking with the draw and the winner of the Pacific Four series could come down to points differential between Canada and NZ with Canada playing Australia and NZ facing USA on Friday.
Update: Ireland won the second match 32-14. Scoring for Canada were Adia Pye (1T), Rachel Cullum (1T), Brooke Roddham (2C). Ireland had added a number of players for the 2nd match including four 7s players, and a few of the senior Ireland squad.
Coach Dean Murten has made minor changes to the roster for the 2nd match versus Ireland which kicks off at 5:00am PT on May 17th. Canada won the 1st match 26-15.
The Canada U20 team won a close 26-22 contest over the Island XV. The U20 went ahead early after a blocked clearing kick from inside the Island 22, notch that one up to good defensive line speed and perhaps some shoddy clearance work from the Island XV. The Island responded with two tries, both unconverted, to go ahead 10-5. The grass was wet from day long rain and handling errors were mounting up, leading to scores. The U20 responded with two tries of their own, converted, 19-10. A great solo effort by inside centre Josh McIndoe extended the U20 lead to 26-10. The Island scored the last two tries to close the gap to 26-22.
We’ll continue to add Summer Rugby Camps here as info is sent in. We’ll list the camps by date. If you’re running a summer camp and want to be listed, email a poster graphic in jpg or png and a paragraph which includes the registration link to editor@bcrugbynews.com
Belmont, who have a strong synergy between their football and rugby programs, doubled up with both Senior and Junior titles in the boys Island high school rugby 7s championships. The top four teams in the senior bracket will advance to the Provincials in Abbotsford, joining Belmont will be Vanier (2nd), Spectrum (3rd) and GNS (4th).
MLR Round 13 goes from Friday to Monday and in this round, unlike the previous two weeks, there weren’t any double matches for teams. There were 23 Canadians in action, 12 starting and 11 in reserves. New England are ahead in the East division and Utah in the West.
It was a relatively quiet week for the senior boys, but the huge story was the Claremont juniors defeating Oak
Bay convincingly, 38-22. It was only their second win of the season, but the machinations of playoff seeding
saw them leapfrog Oak Bay and SMUS into the top spot. More details below…
I saw Tyson Beukeboom had written an article a couple of days ago for the World Rugby online portal, RugbyPass. It’s a quiet Monday rugby-wise, I had just returned to the office from a weekend visiting my daughter and grand-daughters so this seemed like a good way to start the week.
Rugby Canada have completed the announcement of their summer/fall schedule for the men’s XVs team with the Canada v USA fixture in Calgary on August 22nd. That will give them 5 games between July and September, possibly 6 if they finish in the top 4 at the Pacific Nations. World Rugby have also announced the full schedule for the Pacific Nations. Both reports are listed below.
MLR Round 12 like Round 11 started doubling up games for some teams, Utah and San Diego had games on Wednesday and Sunday. Utah leads in the West and New England lead in the East.