There are four matches this week, Caps and Ravens have a bye. There’s four weeks left after this week so points are especially important for teams trying to stay within reach of a playoff spot. The UBC game vs Lomas should be streamed on The Rugby Network.
The Highlanders announced their 19th signing, Lenny Bonduau, a UBC player who plays fullback or wing. He was on the BC U19 team in 2023, the Canada U18 team in 2022 and was also on the BC High School 7s All Tournament team in the spring of 2022.
Last summer it was Canadian players in NZ, this spring it’s Canadian players in Wales. Last summer we tracked a number of players who were playing regional Premier rugby in NZ, including Izzak Kelly, Noah Bain, Jacob Bossi and Callum Botchar in Taranaki. This spring a number of players are congregating in Wales.
An overnight dusting of snow disappeared by game time on a clear cold afternoon at Jericho. But Westshore brought a lot of heat keeping the Ravens on the back foot for most of the first half. Although the Ravens in the early minutes scored from a chip kick fielded by centre Nico Leonard who then breezed by the defending left winger, Westshore had clear advantages in both possession and territory throughout the half. Credit to the Ravens’ defence and a couple of knock-ons near the line that Westshore was held off the scoreboard in the first 40 minutes.
The Vancouver Highlanders hope to host about 10 matches this summer in the Vancouver area, and they’ve just confirmed the first 5.
Thanks to Peter Muirhead who put together these league tables for the weekend ending March 3rd 2024.
There were 36 Canadian players in action in Week 1 with some making an impact on the score sheet and the stats department. Spencer Jones scored the first try by a Canadian in MLR 2024 in the Utah v Houston match but it was Dewald Kotze who lit up the scoreboard with a hat trick of tries in the Dallas v LA match, in that match Andrew Coe had two tries for LA and Mitch Richardson added a single for Dallas. In the New England v Anthem match Ben Lesage scored 2 tries and Andrew Quattrin added one for NE.
The Canadian women continue to roll along with a 4th place finish to follow the 3rd in Vancouver. They now sit in 5th place in the series standings, 2 points behind USA. The bottom four teams facing the relegation tournament are Brazil, South Africa, Japan and Spain. There are two tournaments left before the Madrid final, Hong Kong and Singapore. The pools for Hong Kong (Apr 5-7) have been announced, the women are in a pool with USA, Japan and Spain.
The men’s Premier entered Week 9 with 5 weeks to follow before the playoffs. The Lomas, previously undefeated, had dropped to 3rd place with their loss to the Ravens but roared back to demolish UVic this week and claim top spot again. The women’s Premier kicked off this week as well and featured a number of one sided scorelines.
Jake Thiel has been named as the 18th Vancouver Highlanders signing. Although mostly known for his play on the World Rugby 7s series, Jake was the starting #8 for Canada U20 in 2017 and may again be in contention to claim that spot for the senior men’s XVs. Just turning 27 he’s in his prime for the XVs game.