A few destinations around the world that caught my eye involving Canadian teams and players. The UBCOB Ravens just returned from playing the Mexico National XVs team, MacDowell Rugby are travelling to Germany in June, the Madrid 7s pools were announced and Francois Ratier and his Stade Bordelais team are in the France Elite league playoffs.
The Canadian men’s 7s team have lost 25 games in a row, they’ve finished last in all events except one. They’re entering the repechage tournament in Madrid in 19 days, it’s an 8 team tournament with the top 4 teams remaining in the series next season. We already know Canada are in a pool with USA and the remaining two teams in their pool will be chosen from the top four group of the Challenger series, currently Uruguay, Kenya, Chile and Germany. There’s one more Challenger tournament this coming weekend in Germany to decide the final Challenger rankings.
Ray Barkwill Assistant Coach USA Rugby
Ray Barkwill has been named as the Assistant Coach of the USA women’s XVs team on their tour to the UK to play South Africa on March 30th. That will be a preparation match for their Pacific Four match against Canada on April 28th in LA. Ray announced earlier on his Linkedin account that he was ” happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Defense Coach at USA Rugby!”
Last summer it was Canadian players in NZ, this spring it’s Canadian players in Wales. Last summer we tracked a number of players who were playing regional Premier rugby in NZ, including Izzak Kelly, Noah Bain, Jacob Bossi and Callum Botchar in Taranaki. This spring a number of players are congregating in Wales.
We reflect on the last 3 months of 2023, from October to December, selecting 31 stories that highlighted what was happening in local, national and international rugby news from a Canadian west coast perspective.
Vancouver Island sweeps U16 and U18 PRCs. Canada women go 2-1 at Pacific Four, men lose two in Tonga. New England Free Jacks crowned MLR champions for 2023. Thunder Indigenous Rugby tour to NZ. The Olympic qualifier takes place in Langford, women qualify, the men move to repechage.
We reflect on the second 3 months of 2023, from April to June, selecting 20 stories that highlighted what was happening in local, national and international rugby news from a Canadian west coast perspective.
We reflect on the first 3 months of 2023, from January to March, selecting 20 stories that highlighted what was happening in local, national and international rugby news from a Canadian west coast perspective.
Wishing all our readers a relaxing and joyful holiday season. We’ll do a year end review after Xmas and get into the highlights of the year. For now here are some resources for watching rugby and some past stories that you might find interesting.
File this story under the category, irksome. Rob Howley gets banned from rugby in 2019 for betting on rugby games that included Wales where he was a coach. As the BBC article calls it, “betting breaches”. His ban was 18 months, reduced to 9 months. He was persona non grata in the rugby world, so where did he find work, Canada, and who helped him land the job, according to BBC, Kingsley Jones.