Week 3 of the BC Premier kicks off tomorrow. We count at least 7 players in action who are part of the 32 travelling to Spain with the national team, and another 3 who are in the non-travelling reserves. There are 3 undefeated teams to date Lomas, Pride and Burnaby. Burnaby have a bye this week and the Pride play in a Coastal Cup match this week.
by Peter MacDonald
The fifty year friendship and rivalry between these two fraternal clubs resumed at Jericho on a pleasant October day before a good crowd. To add to the competition members of both clubs recently got together and purchased a cup, “The Legacy Cup” to be competed for between the Premier sides annually on a two-game total points basis. Hopefully the two clubs can meet again in the playoffs where UBC will look to make up the now 18 point deficit.
Week 2 of the Premier season kicks off on Saturday. There are four undefeated teams going into Week 2: Pacific Pride, CW, Meraloma and Burnaby.
We ended up 5 for 5 on the predictions this week, 9 for 10 over 2 weeks – a record we’ll no doubt fail to maintain over the course of the season.
Note: A couple of well loved and prominent members of the BC Rugby community passed last week, Kevin “Lunk” Wirachowski from Velox/Westshore and Ken Peace from Abbotsford. There will likely be a moments silence at some matches this weekend to honour and remember them. More info can be found on the respective club facebook pages, Westshore and Abbotsford.
UPDATE: UBC defeated TWU 66-12 to go 2-2 on the season. Next weekend TWU host the Pride and UBC visit UVic.
The Vancouver Wave won the BC U20 regional title with a 29-19 win over the Vancouver Island Tide. Vancouver were up 17-7 at the half, the Tide closed the gap to 17-12 early in the second half. Vancouver added to their tally to go up 24-12 with still 30 minutes left in the match. The team exchanged tries to push the score to 29-19 with 10 minutes left. Vancouver ran into card troubles and were down to 12 men by the time the final whistle blew, they played tenacious defence to keep the Tide off the score board for the final 10 minutes and hoisted the cup.
The BC Rugby season kicks off in all divisions this weekend. It’s preseason matches for most leagues but the Dunbar Keg regional U20 competition, the Coastal Cup University/Academy competition, and the CanWest women’s University competition are in their regular season this weekend.
The Pacific Pride aka the Rugby Canada Development Academy kick off their fall season on Saturday against defending Premier men’s champions UBC. That game will be played at MacDonald Park, the JBAA home ground, and kickoff is 2:15pm. The match is part of the Coastal Cup which involves the Academy and the University sides UBC, UVic and TWU. The Coastal Cup schedule is here.
We had a look at a draft schedule for the BC Premier and it looks like it will be down to 10 teams from 11 with the Rowers not competing in Premier this season. The 10 teams would be:
About BLRC
Burnaby Lake Rugby run 3 senior Mens teams, a Senior Premier Womens team & a growing mini & junior section. All 4 of our senior teams enjoyed successful seasons & made the playoffs & our U19 boys successfully toured Scotland & England in March 2023.