The Canadian men reached the top 2 in the tournament which would have met pre-tournament goals. Canada just have to finish top 4 in the three tournaments to make it to the LA tournament and vie for promotion. They found out Chile are a step above any other team at the Challenger tournament, and they now have an idea on how far they have to improve to get back to series level.
Play resumes in the BC Premier after a harsh February that saw a number of game cancellations due to field closures. There are 4 men’s Premier and 2 women’s Premier matches on tap this weekend.
Week 18 was the final regular season weekend and this coming weekend will see only four teams in action for the semi-finals. Rori Wood and Gabby Senft made the team of the week for the final regular season of fixtures. This coming weekend will see #1 Gloucester-Hartpury host #4 Bristol and #2 Saracens host #3 Harlequins in the semi-finals.
MLR Week 2 wrapped up with only 12 Canadian players in action (8 starting, 4 reserves) as New England, Seattle and Old Glory had byes. Cooper Coats and Spencer Jones made the MLR team of the week. San Diego is the only 2-0 team going into Round 3.
The Canada men’s U20 camp wrapped up on Sunday with an inter-squad match. Some comments from those at the match indicate the game was played in good spirits with black scrum dominating in the first half.
It wasn’t the tournament the women’s team hoped for but they finished strong, defeating USA in the 7th/8th match, 27-10, despite missing two key players due to injury, Krissy Scurfield and Piper Logan. The try scoring trio in the final match Florence Symonds, Asia Hogan-Rochester and debutant Olivia Sarabura may give a glimpse of what lays ahead for Canada with two tournaments left, Hong Kong and Singapore, before the final in LA. Asia Hogan-Rochester was probably the player of the tournament for Canada and Florence Symonds the player of the game in the USA match, Olivia Sarabura scored a crucial try to keep Canada ahead, and she had to do it one on one against the USA defender. Olivia Apps as usual was solid on both sides of the ball.
The tournament wrapped up with Island North Tsunami winning the U16 Girls title, Island South Tide the U16 Boys title, Valley East winning the U18 Boys title and BC Gold winning the U18 Girls title.
Canada have named 16 players for their exhibition series against Japan and Trinidad & Tobago. The Vancouver tournament will be part of the preparation for the three tournaments coming up in March/April that are part of the Challenger Series to get back on the main World Rugby 7s series.
There were 21 Canadian players in action (out of 46) in MLR Round One, 11 starting, 10 in reserves and 25 not in action. Looking through the match stats for impact players, Mason Flesch has the high tackle count (12) for Chicago in their win over Houston. Andrew Coe was 3rd in metres made in the LA match with 62, Piers von Dadelszen was 4th in tackles made with 19 for New England. Cooper Coats was 4th in defenders beaten (2) in his match with New Orleans. Jesse Mackail made a big impact coming in as reserve hooker for Seattle and scoring 2 tries.
It’s a make up weekend, family day weekend, but most of the games have been cancelled again due to field closures. The Ravens v Burnaby game at Jericho was a late cancellation. There’s only the one men’s Premier game, Pride v Bays, again Starlight Stadium to the rescue. The women’s Premier game Westshore v CW was moved from Westshore to CW and from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon.