It was a sad day for the men’s 7s program as they lost to Spain 22-14 in the promotion/relegation game and they are out of the series for next year. We’ll cover the ramifications of that in an editorial during the week. Remaining on the series next year are Spain, Uruguay, USA and Kenya. The men now focus on the Olympic qualifier later this month.
The high school championships have wrapped up for another year with St. George’s claiming the Boys AAA title with a close 15-10 win over Shawnigan. Collingwood defeated Robert Bateman 24-5 in AA. In Girls AAA it was Gleneagle 21-0 over Yale, in AA DW Poppy defeated Shawnigan 56-7. In Tier 2 Boys it was DW Poppy defeating McNair in the final 29-14.
West Van were dominant in the boys 7s tournament, defeating Stelly’s, last year’s champions, 38-0 in the final. Stelly’s were 2nd and Kelowna Christian were 3rd.
Former Concordia Stingers coach, Jocelyn Barrieau, has been announced as the successor to Jack Hanratty when the Olympics are completed. Barrieau has been with the women’s 7s team as Assistant Coach since May 2023, Hanratty is moving on to a coaching position at the University of Ottawa.
Week 13 of MLR wrapped up with 22 Canada-eligible players in action, 16 starters and 6 in reserves. Half of the Canadian starters were with the New England team who field 8 Canadian starters on the day. Houston and New England remain top of the West and East conferences.
The Highlanders have added 3 more Reserve players to their roster since our last update: Tom Richardson, a loose forward from the James Bay Premier side; Cole Kelly a tighthead prop from Trinity College who was on Canada’s U20 team last year; Demetri Patterson an outside back from UBC.
A few destinations around the world that caught my eye involving Canadian teams and players. The UBCOB Ravens just returned from playing the Mexico National XVs team, MacDowell Rugby are travelling to Germany in June, the Madrid 7s pools were announced and Francois Ratier and his Stade Bordelais team are in the France Elite league playoffs.
Week 12 of MLR wrapped up with 29 Canada-eligible players in action, 16 starters and 13 in reserves. Mitch Richardson and Dewald Kotze of the Dallas Jackals became the first Canadian players to reach 11 starts in the season. There are 6 weeks left in the regular season.
It was looking ominous in the first half with NZ scoring two tries from the backline and leading 14-10 at the half. As usual for Canada it was the forwards and the maul that did the damage on attack, setting up all three Canadian tries.
The latest Rugby XVs rankings for the AAA and AA schools are out and show some changes from the previous rankings.