There’s been some negative reaction to the rugby giants colluding together to have their own party during the summer and fall test windows. The Planet Rugby article calls it the “death of Tier 2 rugby”, Americas Rugby News states, “Changes are set to hit International Rugby like a hurricane.”
by Noah Bain
Kia ora and thanks for tuning into BCRN! My name is Noah Bain, in case youre new here, and this is my 4th article documenting my experience as a Canadian playing rugby for Spotswood United in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. I wish I had some good news in regards to us getting a win, following up on my last post, but sadly, I do not. The Chiefs lost to the Crusaders, and Spotty lost again. It has been a challenging season mixed with growth and rewards, as I continue to keep learning much about myself and about this wonderful game.
Van City Rugby Academy are running two rugby camps this summer.
The coaching staff includes Christiaan Esterhuizen, Mike Hall and Aaron Takel.
The age group is 5-13 years.
The Loonies women’s team, stacked with Canadian talent, and coached by Robin MacDowell won the Western kickoff tournament on Saturday. The standings count both the men’s and women’s results, the Loonies men came 3rd but their combined results put the Loonies at the top of the standings with 16 points.
The Toronto Arrows Academy took home the Coast to Coast Cup for 2023 with some talented backline play, and some weak outside defending from the home team. The forwards advantage the Atlantic Selects had in the first half disappeared when the subs came on in the second half. It was the play of the outside backs for Toronto that won them the match. Stanislas Blazkowski, the fullback from the Arrows Academy, was selected Man of the Match. Stan is from Marseille, France but moved to Montreal when he was young with his family. He went back to France to play for the Racing Academy and then returned to Canada to play with the Concordia Stingers. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more of him in the future.
We crunched the numbers to come up with an Editor’s pick of the BCRN Canadian MLR XXIII.
First we looked at the MLR First XV team of the week selections. These were the season results.
Rugby Canada has confirmed what the Tongan rugby union had already stated, Tonga will play two World Cup warm up matches against Canada. The Tonga pre-World Cup schedule is Australia A, Fiji, Samoa, Japan, Canada, Canada.
The Commonwealth Youth Games were last held in 2017 in the Bahamas. The 2021 games were postponed due to COVID and are taking place this year in Tobago.
BC went up 10-0 in the first quarter with two tries by Zephyr Melnyk. Mike Moloney left 7 points on the field with one missed penalty and two missed conversions. BC are playing with a lot of nervous energy, they’re moving the ball ahead but it’s creating a lot of errors. Toronto slot a penalty 10-3. BC kick the ensuing kickoff into touch and Toronto have a scrum at half. Moloney hits a nice 50/22 to give BC some position inside the Toronto 22 but the Arrows steal it back. BC are winning the kicking game and gaining some territory. BC get a driving maul going and Zephyr Melnyk finishes it off for his 3rd try. AJ Kosempel scores a solo try on the outside for the Arrows, 17-10 for BC at the half.
from Paul Horne
Hoping you can help us get the Can back in the Can-Am Sevens. Would love to see the BC teams return to compete for the Can Am Cup. The tourney is the oldest running 7’s event in the Pacific Northwest going back to 1978 and the history shows clubs like UBCOB Ravens, Meralomas and Bayside dominated the competition over the last three decades.