from CanWest Sports
The UBC Thunderbirds won their first ever Women’s Rugby 7s Canada West banner, going a perfect 15-0 on the season and breaking the four-year dominance of Victoria Vikes after the three-stop series wrapped up at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver on Saturday afternoon.
With Toronto and New England having byes, teams that have the most Canadian players on the roster, there were only 13 Canadians in action this weekend, and only 4 starters.
It was a short day for the men. After the excitement of upsetting Australia on Day 1, it hasn’t gone well for them. What are the odds of defeating the 2022 Series winners and them meeting the #2 team in the 13th place semi-final?
The North Shore News ran a couple of articles that featured the Capilano Rugby Club. The first one featured Elias Ergas, a North Shore player, the second article focused on the visit to the Capilano Rugby Club by the Black Ferns.
from World Rugby
World Rugby today confirmed details for the Pacific Four Series 2023, the annual cross-regional tournament contested by Australia, Canada, New Zealand and USA.
The Thunder Indigenous Rugby program is touring to NZ in August, taking a U18 boys and a U18 girls team. Last year in August they had a successful tour to California, entering the LA 7s Invitational, the tour review is on their website.
It was Canada’s 2nd best performance this year, but it’s not enough to escape the relegation tournament looming with only 4 tournaments left to make a difference. Canada finished in a 11th/12th place tie with Uruguay so they didn’t gain any ground on the team holding on to the last safe spot in the series. Uruguay remain in 11th place with 29 points, Canada are 10 points behind in 14th place. Spain were the winner in this tournament, claiming 10th spot and 7 series points, they’re now in 12th spot in the series, only 4 points back of Uruguay. Kenya fell further off the pace finishing in 15th/16th spot and gaining only 1 series point, but they remain ahead of Canada in 13th place with 22 points. Japan continue to occupy the immediate relegation spot in 15th place with 8 points.
Week 2 kicked off on Friday with Seattle claiming their second win of the season. We’ve listed the Canadian players in the rosters for week 1 and 2. We’ll add the rosters for Sunday when they become available.
Rugby Canada finally released the roster for the Maple Leaf squad at the LA 7s Invitational. Two players, Anton Ngongo and Brennig Prevost, are from the senior squad. Callum Botchar, rumoured to be going to Taranaki for XVs later this year, is in the squad. Pride players Max Stewart, AJ Kosempel, Zephyr Melnyk are in the roster as well as CW winger Jordan Ng and Ravens wing Cole Keffer. JBAA’s Mostyn Findlay is on the team as well as UBC’s Jared Andrews-Almack and UVic’s Ethan Hager. The only player who hasn’t played in the BC Premier is Christian Coppin from Upright Rogues in Ontario.
The BCRU has cancelled all games in the province due to weather. It’s seen as a heavy handed decision by some who were prepared to go ahead with their matches, some fields were open. UBC had their field open and handled similar situations during the University Championships in November/December.