The Canada Summer Games are taking place in St. John’s, Newfoundland between August 8-25. The Rugby 7s takes place Aug 11-13. In 2022 it was just U18 women’s Rugby 7s, won by BC, but in 2025 it will be men’s U20 and women’s U18 Rugby 7s.
This year the PRCs have a slight change, less teams, higher quality. The number of teams have been reduced to four representing the four main regions of BC: Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Fraser Valley and Interior. There was an earlier post in March that explained those changes.
Mainland Gold won the final match in the three game series 29-24. It was Blue leading at the half 17-12, then 24-12 but unlike the first two matches when Blue then pulled away to win comfortably it was Gold who did all the scoring to end the match.
The 2025 BCRU AGM is coming up June 21st. Gone are the days of in-person meetings, now it’s done virtually on zoom. The link to the documents and details are here.
One of the interesting documents is the Vote Allocations, votes according to the bylaw document are “based on the Represented Individual Members who have paid annual dues of BC Rugby as of August 31st of each year”. It’s a way of comparing membership growth (or decline) in various regions and clubs.
The Island Blue team wrapped up the best of 3 series winning the second game 41-24 to take a 2-0 lead in the series. As in game #1 the half time score was close 12-7 but the Island squad pulled away in the second half to extend the score to 41-7 with 10 minutes remaining. The Mainland team scored a few tries to finish off the match and make the scoreline closer at 41-24.
Well the BCRU have gone down an interesting path this time in their selection of CEO. Welcome to Matthew Carter, as the BCRU media release highlights, former Lotus F1 CEO and Business Development Director for Lille Olympique Sporting Club, a professional soccer team in France. Very impressive stuff that happened between 2013-2018. He hails from Coventry, UK and before his high profile Lotus F1 position he was a senior investment manager with Genii Capital and Bridgehouse Capital. As the BCRU states, “over 25 years of experience in venture capitalism, business development and sports management.”
A close 12-7 game at the half blew up into a 62-7 win for Island Blue as they added 50 points in the second half. Winger Jenna De Greeff notched 3 tries, Justine Blatt-Janmaat at scrum half kept the team on the front foot, Sierra Gillis (tight head), Emily Findlay (8), and Shaye Ogurek (flanker) all had strong games for the Blue forwards, in the backs Lara Wright at outside centre was a standout as was Emily Currey on the wing. Carissa Norsten was originally listed as outside centre for the Island team but didn’t suit up so Lara Wright moved from #12 to #13 and Hadley MacPherson moved from the reserves to starting #12.
The women’s Island Blue vs Mainland Gold series starts later this month with the ID sessions starting May 10th. The national team coach, Kevin Rouet, stated “the BC Blue vs Gold Series is the best standard of Rugby we can provide to senior female athletes in BC. These games are an important part of the pathway for athletes to access the Canadian National Senior Women’s program or Canada Select team. I am very excited to see athletes playing in a multi-game format and showing consistency in performance in these high-standard games.”
It’s semi-finals weekend this Saturday with 14 matches over 7 divisions at 10 venues. You can catch the action at the following venues, Jericho Beach Park, UBC Gerald McGavin Centre, Juan de Fuca centre, May Bennett Park, Abbotsford Exhibition Park, Brockton Oval, Kamloops Exhibition Park, South Surrey Athletic Park, Crush Crescent, Klahanie Park.
The 2024/25 BC Rugby Senior Club Leagues Playoffs have been confirmed with the quarter-finals this coming weekend, April 12th. The semi-finals take place April 26th after the Easter break and the finals are in Abbotsford on Saturday, May 3, 2025. The complete list of times and venues is on the BCRU fixtures page.