On a sunny, warm, late winter day at Windsor Park the Ravens surprisingly proved too much for the host Castaway Wanderers. Apart from an early Raven try, where centre Ethan Berry put away left winger Aga Ligamy, it was the expected hard-fought game in which two strong packs duked it out evenly… until the 20 minute mark.
Thanks to Peter Muirhead who put together these league tables for the weekend ending March 17th 2024.
There were 32 Canada-eligible players in action in Week 3, 18 starters and 14 reserves. Some of the highlights, Ben Lesage scored a try in his third successive match for New England. Mitch Richardson, Nic Benn, Dewald Kotze scored in the Dallas win over Anthem. Mason Flesch was top ball carrier for Chicago and Matt Heaton topped the tackle stats in the LA match.
Only four weeks left in the BC Premier regular season with teams jostling for playoff positions. The top 6 get in the playoffs with the Pacific Pride not eligible, 1 and 2 get quarter-final byes and 3 v 6 and 4 v 5. Currently that would see the Lomas and Ravens get byes, Burnaby host UVic and CW host Westshore but a lot can change after the weekend. Indeed it did change, now with 3 weeks left it would be Burnaby hosting UBC in the quarter-finals with the other positions remaining unchanged.
Jack Hanratty will leave his position as Head Coach of the national women’s 7s team after the Paris Olympics which ends mid-August. The Rugby Canada press release indicates he will take a short break and start his university role in 2025 which would mean he would miss the 2024 USports rugby season which runs from September to November. The 2024 championship will be hosted by UPEI.
Don Burgess was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, in the Builder category. He was well recognized for his contributions to rugby as a player, coach and inventor but it was his research and writing contributions that are highlighted in this article.
Ray Barkwill Assistant Coach USA Rugby
Ray Barkwill has been named as the Assistant Coach of the USA women’s XVs team on their tour to the UK to play South Africa on March 30th. That will be a preparation match for their Pacific Four match against Canada on April 28th in LA. Ray announced earlier on his Linkedin account that he was ” happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Defense Coach at USA Rugby!”
There were 18 Canadian players starting in Week 2 and 13 in the reserves, for a total 31 dressing on game day. That was down 5 from Week 1 where 36 of the 46 Canada-eligible players were in action. Ben Lesage and Andrew Quattrin scored tries for the second week in a row for New England, Shane O’Leary had the top stat for running metres for Miami in their match, Matt Heaton was top of the tackle stats for LA in their match.
Thanks to Peter Muirhead who put together these league tables for the weekend ending March 10th 2024.
The former Meraloma coach who hails from South Africa has been appointed to the dual role of Head Coach of the Pacific Pride and the Canada U20 team.