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.
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.
It’s week 6 of the 11 week regular season, with 3 more weekends of playoff action for the top 6 teams (7 as the Pride aren’t eligible for post season).
by Peter MacDonald
On an intact Klahanie pitch with intermittent very light rain falling the Caps looked in mid-season form to start this game coming out of the winter break. The Ravens not so much. Some credit is due to the Ravens though for keeping the score to 15-0 Caps after 15 minutes as the Caps had all the ball and were firing forward pods and quick ball through the backs at them in waves. A saving tackle by Aaron McLelland and some big hits by centre Sean Pyle kept the Caps onslaught from getting completely out of control.
The men’s Premier restarts this weekend at Week 5. We have the predictions and rosters below. The women’s Premier starts Week 1, we have the matches listed below and will post rosters if and when they’re made available.
With the second half of the season starting this weekend, it seemed a good idea to do an early preview/review article. Our usual prediction article will be on Friday once we have the rosters in.
The Pacific Pride defeated the Island Crimson Tide 54-25 to win the McKechnie Cup for the 2nd time in the cup’s 127 year history. The Pride won it the for first time in 2002, a few years before the program was cancelled in 2005. The Pacific Pride program was reintroduced again in 2019.
The McKechnie Cup and Dunbar Keg matches scheduled for this weekend at Abbotsford and Capilano have been cancelled due to weather and field conditions. The last round continues next weekend, weather permitting, Vancouver v Fraser Valley, North Island v South Island (Dunbar Keg) and Pacific Pride v Island.
[ed. photos from the Dunbar Keg match North Island v Fraser Valley can be viewed here.]
The BC Premier has closed down for the Dec/Jan break and it’s the McKechnie Cup and U20 Dunbar Keg regional matches now. It took a while to get the rosters but they’re in now. Vancouver weren’t able to put together a U20 team and the South Island win that match be default.
[ed. UPDATE: We’ve updated the wording to reflect the Ravens will be appealing so the official status of the Vikes match is unknown at this time. The Ravens weren’t able to show up for their match versus UVic, they’re apparently facing a ban on BC Ferries for a period of time. Excerpt of message from Ravens, “We will be appealing this decision and hope to reschedule the UVIC game for a later date. We will be formulating a response to BC Rugby.” More information when it becomes available.]
An unusual week to finish off the first part of the season, a potential default by the league leading Ravens, otherwise the games were close with a +6 average score. Next weekend sees the McKechnie Cup kickoff with the Pride hosting Fraser Valley and the Island hosting Vancouver. In the U20 Dunbar competition, North Island host Fraser Valley and South Island host Vancouver.