Author Archive: BCRN

Community Rugby in Action

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UVic Vikes Men’s Rugby Hosts “Vikes Giving Day” Blood Drive on February 5th 2025

I received a nice note from Ian Smith, one of the UVic Vikes rugby players who is also their fundraising lead. It’s about their Blood Drive initiative to support Canadian Blood Services while also supporting UVic sports through pledges.  You can read the note below which has links to their pledge form and the Canadian Blood Services donor form. Last year over 60 student-athletes and friends donated blood and they reached 127 pledges, a number they hope to exceed this year.

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MacDowell Rugby Academy – January 2025

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Interview with Robin MacDowell on the MacDowell Academy and Release of the MacDowell Performance App

BCRN: Hi Robin, I saw you released a new training app called MacDowell Performance, it’s powered by Athlete Health First. Before we get into the app let’s talk about Athlete Health First, I understand there’s an interesting history there with the company and the founder.

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BCRU logo 2024

BCRU Updates – January 2025

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BCRU “Parts Ways” with CEO David Newson: John Tait to Serve as Interim CEO

I never met David Newson, which is unusual in my role as editor of BCRN, I knew and met all the previous CEO’s but Newson seemed like the type of person who did the obligatory glad handing but never reached out beyond that. He didn’t seem very ambitious in growing rugby in BC. Here’s the article we put up when he was hired in 2022.

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HSBC SVNS Perth – January 24-26

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Pools Drawn for Perth: Canada in Pool with USA, GB, Fiji

The Canadian women will be in a pool with USA, Great Britain and Fiji in Perth. USA sit in 4th place with a 2nd place finish in Cape Town, GB are in 5th place, Canada in 7th place and Fiji in 11th place. The top 8 teams avoid the relegation tournament in LA and compete for the title. There are 3 more tournaments after Perth and before LA, they’re Vancouver, Hong Kong and Singapore.

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Rugby Updates – January 8th 2025

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WFYC Podcast with Jake Thiel; Pacific Pride Players Graduating; Westshore Secondary 7s in March; Thunder Celebration at Mungo Martin House in March

A few local rugby news stories today, a podcast with Jake Thiel showed up on YouTube on the What Fills Your Cup channel. The link is below and a brief Ai summary of the podcast. Also the Pacific Pride announced the players graduating from the program over the winter break. Westshore Secondary 7s announced their tournament for March 14th and the Thunder Indigenous Rugby program announced their celebration at the Mungo Martin House for March 23rd where they’ll award the Bear trophy to the Pacific Pride for winning the Coastal Cup and announce their youth team for the NZ tour, plus announce the winners of the Phil Mack Indigenous player of the year award.

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Local Rugby News – January 2025

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Comox Rapids Girls U18 Tour to Scotland “Adopt an Athlete”; UBC Men’s Rugby Advertises for Social Media Manager

A couple of local BC rugby stories caught my eye today. The Comox U18 girls, they won the provincial girls U18 club title last month, will be touring to Scotland in March, and taking in the Scotland v Wales match. They’re playing 3 games while there. What really impressed me with their fundraising effort, “Adopt an Athlete” is the work they put into the player profiles, making it first person and making the rugby jargon easy to understand for non-rugby people. Well done Comox Rapids! Their intro and a link to the player profiles and donation form is posted below.

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England Premiership Women’s Rugby – January 2025

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Round Twelve Results from English Premier: 12 Canadian Players in Action

Rori Wood got her first start at tighthead for Ealing, Tyson Beukeboom was 2nd row, Julia Schell started at #10 for the Trailfinders. Julia Omokhuale started at blindside flanker for Leicester, Claire Gallagher started at fullback for the Tigers. Loughborough had Krissy Scurfield on the wing, she scored two tries, Abby Duguid at second row, Courtney Holtkamp was in the reserves at #19. Saracens had McKinley Hunt as starting loosehead prop, Gabby Senft at #8, Alysha Corrigan on the wing and Maya Montiel as reserve prop.

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Canada U18 Tour to California in January 2020

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A Reflection on the Canada U18 Tour to California in January 2020; A Look at Where Players Are Now

With little rugby happening in BC and Canada right now I thought I’d go back to January 2020 and revisit the Canada U18 tour to California to take on the USA U18 teams and then a couple of touring sides from South Africa. The tour started in December 2019 and finished up in January 2020. The tour included 6 games in total with 4 wins and 2 losses for the Canadian teams.

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Thunder Rugby

Thunder Indigenous Rugby – January 2025

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Thunder Indigenous Rugby 2025 Updates: White Rock Camp in January, Phil Mack Indigenous Player of the Year Applications Open, Thunder to NZ in 2025, Support Thunder with Tax Deductible Donation

A couple of events are coming up in January for the Thunder Indigenous Rugby program. First is a youth rugby camp at White Rock on January 25-26. The registration link is here, you can also email jlyall@thunderrugby.ca

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Canadian Rugby Influencers on Social Media

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Who Are the Top Canadian Rugby “Influencers” on Social Media

Influencer, it’s a term that’s taken on new meaning over the last decade, even the dictionaries have included the new twist, “a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.” Instagram and Tik Tok are probably the most talked about social media platforms among the younger generations. In this article we look at Instagram numbers.

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