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.
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.