A good initiative by the Highlanders as they look at future players who might fill their ranks in years to come. It’s long range planning at its best. We’ve also updated the Highlanders news since our last post, appended below.
A reader sent in a story from the CW website, posted below. It mentions the 50th anniversary of mini-rugby this year with a shout out to Mick Eckardt. We took a deeper dive into the Daily Colonist archive and came up with some interesting news clippings about Mick, rugby in that era and mini-rugby.
In March 1954 the NZ All Blacks wrapped up a gruelling 36 match tour of the UK, Ireland, France and North America. By the time they reached BC they had played 31 matches and had 5 more to go, 3 of them in BC and 2 in California. They won the matches in BC handily, 39-3 against Victoria, 42-3 against UBC and 37-11 against the Mainland.
With only four matches this weekend it was the lowest number of Canadians playing this season, 8 starters, 7 in reserve for a total of 15 in action. There are four players who have been starters in all 5 weeks, Mason Flesch for Chicago and Dewald Kotze, Mitch Richardson and Nic Benn for Dallas.
Three Canadian teams claimed titles at the Tropical 7s in 2024. MacDowell Rugby won the senior women’s title, the Oakville Crusaders won the Boys U18 Elite title and Rugby Quebec won the U16 Girls Open title. Congratulations to the players and coaches. Full results can be seen on the tournament results website.
With the Easter weekend upon us, the BC Rugby leagues taking a break for the weekend, I thought I’d turn attention to a question some may be pondering now, who will be the halfbacks for Canada when they start play this summer?
The BCRU has confirmed that the Burnaby Rugby Club will host the 2024 BC club finals on May 4th. There will be 8 championships decided from Premier down to Division 3. Ticket prices are listed at $20 at the venue, or $15 pre-event online.
On a miserable rainy day before a lively, full house crowd at Klahanie the Capilanos threw a scare into the Ravens before the visitors pulled away for the win in the last 20 minutes. It was a quality game and Raven fullback Nick Blain after the game commented that it was one of the toughest games they’ve had all season. Kudos to the Caps for ignoring the record and continuing to play good rugby.
The 1932 tour wasn’t the first Canadian rugby tour but it was the first tour under the auspices of the Rugby Union of Canada, which was formed in 1929. The tour booklet makes mention of the 1902-1903 tour to the UK which was the first Canada tour, it also references the 1930 incoming Japan tour to BC which acted as a foundation for this 1932 tour.
Thanks to Peter Muirhead who put together these league tables for the weekend ending March 24th 2024.