Author Archive: BCRN

2024 Recap – April/May

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Top Rugby Stories in BC and Canada During April and May 2024: BC Club Season Wraps Up, UBCOB Ravens Premier Champions; BC High School Season Begins; Canada Women Win Pacific Four Title; Canada Compete at Hong Kong and Singapore 7s

In April the BC club season reaches the semi-finals stage, the high school rugby season is just kicking off. On the national team scene the Hong Kong 7s wraps up and the Canada women start their Pacific Four campaign with a win over USA. Rugby Canada issues its AGM reports and financials and Sally Dennis steps down as Chair of the Board.

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2024 Recap – February/March

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Top Rugby Stories in BC and Canada During February and March 2024: BC Premier Re-Starts at Week 7; Vancouver & LA 7s; Rugby Canada Announce Summer Tests; Canada Selects vs Seattle Seawolves; National U20 and 7s Coaching Announcements; Tropical 7s; MLR Season Starts

We look at some of the top rugby stories in BC and Canada during February and March 2024. The BC Premier re-started in February with Week 7, mini-rugby ramped up, the BCRU announced its high performance pathways for the year. The Vancouver 7s and the invitational youth tournament took place. Rugby Canada announced the 3 home tests during the summer for the men’s XVs team. World Rugby announced Scotland as the host of the JWRT U20 championships. MLR preseason started with Seattle taking on the Canada Selects.

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Vancouver Highlanders

2024 Recap – January

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A Look at the 2024 Stories in January 2024: Vancouver Highlanders Player Announcements; Adam Roberts Resigns U20 Coach; Phil Mack Appointed Men’s XVs Attack Coach; World Rugby Invests in MLR Charlotte; BC Rugby Season Restarts; Perth 7s; Pacific Four Series Announced… and More

There were a lot of key rugby events and announcements in January 2024. The Vancouver Highlanders came on the scene and announced they would name their 25 player roster over the following 12 weeks. We’ll see next week  whether there’s some Highlanders activity to kick of the new year.

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Holiday Message 2025

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Message of Hope Over the Holiday Season

There’s been some gloom in the rugby community going into the holiday season, especially around the hope that Jamie Cudmore would be the new Canadian coach, that Canadians would take back the men’s XVs program going into 2025. It wasn’t to be this year however there are some positive thoughts to share over the holiday season.

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Rugby Canada Updates – December 2024

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Steve Meehan Named as Canadian Men’s XVs Head Coach

I have to admit, most of the Canadian rugby community feels sucker punched by Stephen Aboud right now. Instead of hiring Jamie Cudmore, who was the Canadian choice, he went for Australian Steve Meehan. I’ve had a few messages from Canadian rugby fans but as I’ve explained when you hire an American CEO and an Irish High Performance Director, you can’t expect a Canadian solution. Thank the current and previous Rugby Canada Board for that.

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In The News – December 2024

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RugbyPass Article Delves into Canadian Men’s Rugby, Jamie Cudmore’s Desire to Return, Cancel Culture at Rugby Canada That Prevents His Return

Great article on RugbyPass (owned by World Rugby) about Jamie Cudmore, the state of men’s rugby in Canada and the cancel culture at Rugby Canada that’s preventing his return… “is there no forgiveness?”

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Vancouver Sevens

Vancouver 7s – Canadian Men

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Canada Men to Play Trinidad & Tobago and Japan at Invitational Tournament at Vancouver 7s

It’s not what was wanted from last year’s perspective. Ideally the men’s team would still be on the World Rugby 7s series and, with the women, drawing in the crowd. Will the crowds still come without the men in the main tournament or do people just want to party and rugby is the extra bonus. We’ll find out in February.

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From the Editor’s Desk – December 2024

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Aboud Back to Italy?? Who Will Be Canada’s Next Head Coach

A couple of recent topics merit some attention as the year winds down. There’s been rumours circulating out of Italy about Stephen Aboud’s return, we’ll keep an eye on that. Of course everyone wants to know what is happening with Kingsley Jones replacement, at least what’s the process, again something to keep an eye on. We post some thoughts on those topics below.

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Global Youth Sevens 2024

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Finals Results at Global Youth 7s: BC Bears Girls Finish 17th, Boys 19/20; MacDowell Academy Girls Finish 21st Place, Boys 32nd

The BC Bears boys won their Bowl quarter-final over Belmont Shore from California, 19-7 but lost the semi-finals to Saracens 33-5. Saracens would go on to win the Bowl final and claim 17th place. That would put the boys ranking as 19/20 place at the tournament. The boys tournament was won by the Australia U18 team.

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