There’s a full schedule of quality rugby coming up in May starting with the club finals at Bayside next weekend. There are seven division to be contested Ravens v UVic in Men’s Premier, Thunderbirds v Westshore in Women’s Premier, Capilano v Rowers in Men’s Div 1, Kamloops v Capilano in Women’s Div 1, Kamloops v Kelowna in Men’s Div 2, Chilliwack v Kelowna in Women’s Div 2, Burnaby v Rowers in Men’s Div 3.
A couple of upsets in the BC Premier and a couple of wins by defending champions. In the men’s Premier UVic upset UBC and in the women’s Premier Westshore upset Meraloma. The defending champions from last year in both men’s and women’s Premier continued through in strong form. The Ravens put in a +40 win in men’s Premier and Thunderbirds had a +17 win in women’s Premier. All the results from the 14 matches are posted below.
It was a big day this past Saturday at Exhibition Park in Kamloops, with both KRC senior squads hosting their respective quarter finals.
The men’s game was first on the line up with the Raiders hosting Richmond. The men kicked off to the visitors and through tight pressure eventually gained control of the ball and put the Richmond defense under instant pressure, with Raider second row Max Heppner finding a gap and scoring for the Raiders, try went unconverted, 5-0 KRC.
There are 14 semi-final matches this coming weekend in 7 divisions at 8 venues with 21 clubs represented. There are 7 clubs with two teams in the semis UVic (2), Burnaby (2), Capilano (2), Rowers (2), Bayside (2), Kamloops (2), Kelowna (2). There are 14 clubs with one team in the semis Ravens, JBAA, UBC, Meraloma, Westshore, Thunderbirds, Nanaimo, Comox, United, Kats, Chilliwack, Ridge Meadows, SFU, Langley.
Phil’s Volume 2 Issue 7 covers the match between St. George’s v Shawnigan. These two schools are perennial finalists in the AAA division. St. George’s claimed a narrow win on home ground. Some other cross-region matches Phil covers are Oak Bay v Earl Marriott and SMUS v Carson Graham. Two teams that went up from AA to AAA this year Collingwood and Robert Bateman also went head to head and Phil has that report. BC School Sports has started putting out their rugby XVs rankings and we’ve appended them below.
The national women’s XVs team are going to have a busy fall, first they’re heading to Europe in September to prepare for matches against England (Sept 19th), France (Sept 26th) and Scotland (??). Then they return home and host England on October 16th in Toronto, with one more match to follow to complete the two game Rugby Rematch Tour. The details of the second match haven’t been announced yet. That’s five high level games over two months! [UPDATE: 2nd match announced for Ottawa October 23rd.]
I admit it, it was a Sunday, the quarter-finals were just over, it was a beautiful day out, I wasn’t motivated to post a story today. But then local Victoria photographer Phillip Kristiansen from sidelinephotos.ca reached out and sent me his photo gallery of the Westshore v CW match with permission to use photos on the site. I saw the sequence of photos below and wow, great shots Phillip, but who is that player? Emily Findlay I was told by Westshore sources. Mostyn Findlay’s younger sister! How many brothers/sisters were playing Premier rugby yesterday for separate clubs? Those who follows the BC Premier know that Mostyn plays for James Bay and has been a fixture in the BC Premier for a number of years, and an accomplished 7s player as well.
The quarter-final results are in and the favourites won most of the matches. UVic upset higher ranked Westshore in men’s Premier but with the Cooper Coats factor we had predicted that upset. The Bays had a very close match with Capilano as the Caps raised their game for their final match of the season. In women’s Premier, Westshore put in a strong home field performance and glided past CW, earning them a trip to Meralomas for the semi-finals. In men’s and women’s Div 1 all the higher ranked home teams claimed victory and move on to the semi-finals. That pattern held true right down to Div 2 and Div 3.
There’s no doubt Canada’s scrum set the platform for a dominant performance by Canada. The tight five of Brittany Kassil, Emily Tuttosi, DaLeaka Menin, Julia Omokhuale, Laetitia Royer deserve accolades in this win. Sophie de Goede is returning to her Player of the Year form and #8 is definitely her position. Taylor Perry floated some beautiful passes out to the wing to enable tries by Aurora Bowie and Asia Hogan-Rochester. Hogan-Rochester scored a try in each game of the series and is a star-level player in both XVs and 7s. Alex Tessier was solid throughout, leading as captain. Canada fell behind early but didn’t panic and after Sophie de Goede scored Canada’s first try at the 22′ mark, it was all Canada after that.
There are 20 quarter-final matches this weekend at 15 locations, there was one default in men’s Div 2. There are double headers at Juan de Fuca, Klahanie, Brockton Oval, South Surrey Athletic Park and Kamloops. The match locations, times and referee assignments are listed below. We’ll do our BC Premier predictions and rosters article on Friday, we’ll also list rosters for other divisions if they’re sent to us, text format preferred, email editor@bcrugbynews.com