by Peter MacDonald
On a crisp, sunny, early spring day at Brockton Oval the Ravens and the Rowers played out the string but still put on an entertaining, fun game for the players and fans alike. The Ravens remained undefeated (on the field) while the Rowers showed their class in the set scrum and in serious flashes in the backs.
The men fell further off the pace in trying to avoid the relegation tournament. With two tournaments left, Singapore next week and Toulouse in May, it’s looking unlikely that Canada will make up the 18 points on Spain and 17 points on Uruguay to contest for the 11th spot and exemption from the relegation tournament in London. Spain made the quarter-final in Hong Kong which gave them 10 series points and allowed them to pass Uruguay who garnered 5 series points. Canada earned 2 series points in Hong Kong. Canada are in a pool with Fiji, Spain and Samoa in Singapore so they’ll have a chance to go head to head against Spain in that tournament.
The women’s XVs team continues to impress under the coaching of Kevin Rouet and the player leadership of Sophie de Goede. The performance of the team challenges some standard beliefs.
[ed. rosters posted in format last week/this week]
It took us a while this week to get the scores out, the BCRU system had JBAA defeating CW but in fact it was CW with the win. The BCRU system doesn’t have a central person responsible for scores but relies on refs entering the scores post match and there have been a few data entry errors lately. We’ve verified most of these scores with a secondary source. We’re also assuming the BCRU table accurately calculated bonus points from today’s results. UPDATE: Our assumption was apparently wrong, the BCRU table is incorrect, CW didn’t get a bonus point in their win which changes the playoff picture, we’ve revised our article accordingly.
[ed. note that times and locations based on BCRU fixtures page at time of writing.]
Our normal prediction article with rosters and predictions for the men’s Premier will come out tomorrow as usual but we thought we’d take a look at the playoff picture for the men’s Div 1 and women’s Premier today.
[ed. application deadline is May 15th. Originally published Jan 10th 2023]
‘BC Friends of Rugby’ are a group of passionate rugby people who are trying to give back and help grow our sport. One of the initiatives is a scholarship program where a total of 10 scholarships valued at $2000 each will be awarded to talented young rugby players that are hoping to combine their journey in sport with their education. Five will be awarded to male athletes, and another five will be awarded to female athletes. This opportunity is available to all graduating high school students. Attached is the application form. Please forward your completed application and references to Tim Murdy (tmurdy@shawnigan.ca).
by John Langley
Caps Men were on the road today for two games at James Bay. Two close games but unfortunately two losses.
Seattle remain the only undefeated side in the MLR after Week 6. There were 29 Canadians in the rosters, 19 starting.
If using photos please give credit to BC Rugby News. Click on any image to see full screen photo slide show, editor@bcrugbynews.com.
from Rugby Canada
Canadas Womens Rugby Team won their first game of 2023 by a convincing score of 66-7 over South Africa on Saturday, marking the first time Canada has played the Springbok Women in 10 years.