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.
Some good news from the Rugby Network, they’ll stream the Coast to Coast Cup and unlike the U20 series on FloRugby, you won’t have to pay $30 a month to watch it, it’s free of charge. Well done to the Rugby Network and tournament organizers.
There’s one week left in the regular season and the only question that remains about post-season play is who will have home field advantage in the East in the first round of the playoff, Old Glory (38) or New York (42). Old Glory hosts Atlanta in the final weekend while New York visit Utah. A win by NY will guarantee home field advantage. The East conference winner New England will host the winner of Old Glory v New York, while in the West San Diego will host the winner of Seattle v Houston.
by Noah Bain
Hello again, and thanks for tuning in to BCRN. Congrats to those named for the BC Bears squads and good luck in your comps this summer. I am excited to watch from afar! Another congrats to the many of those being named to PR 7s squads. That is huge accomplishment and is sure to be an action packed few weeks of competition with many Canadians going. Lots of North American Rugby to look forward to this summer, exciting times! Moving forward, this article is going to be formatted a little differently than previous ones.
Tonga?
RNZ, Radio New Zealand, ran a story on Tongan rugby that states they’ll play a 2 game series against Canada after the Pacific Nations Cup and before leaving for the World Cup in France. Tonga play their final PNC match August 5th in Samoa, that leaves 3 weekends of pre-World Cup action remaining, August 12, 19, 26, to fit in a 2 game series. There’s been no corroboration from Rugby Canada or World Rugby yet.
It was 22-14 for USA at the half and they did all the second half scoring to win 39-14 and win on aggregate 82-35.
The USA opened the scoring 5 minutes in when their blindside flanker, Cameron McAlpine, beat three would be tacklers and scored. It was a try that shouldn’t have happened at this level and as the 82 point aggregate hints, defence was an issue for Canada. Noah Flesch saw a gap and tied the score up at 7 minutes, it was converted and Canada had a 7-5 lead. USA kicked a penalty at 30 minutes and were in the lead 8-7. Canada took back the lead with a score out wide by Craig Mitchell-Herman at 32 minutes, 14-8, and there was a glimmer of hope as the aggregate was now reduced to 16 with the conversion.