Special thanks to Peter Muirhead for putting these standings together, the PlayHQ system that the BCRU uses is still not updating properly. The PlayHQ system can be accessed here for match results, however tries and try bonus points are not working consistently on their system at the present time. The tables below are ordered by Points per Game rather than total points. Photo by Dave Caleb.
With four weeks and a bunch of turkey, ferry travel and elections since the last home game, it took a while for the supporters to roll in and for the Ravens prems to sharpen their game against a solid Rowers squad who hadn’t visited Jericho for a few years. A light rain contributing to a slick field and ball was another factor limiting crisp execution on the day. But despite some messy early lineouts, a second-best set scrum and some poor handling the Ravens prevailed with good defensive play at the breakdown and a strong forward attack with ball in hand.
The KRC Senior Women were off to Kelowna today for both a BC Rugby Women’s Division 1 game and an additional exhibition game with both Kamloops and Kelowna having over 30 players available.
Kelowna kicked off to the visiting Raiders, who quickly moved into the Crows half and set up camp. KRC flyhalf Kelsey Harpman worked hard to move the Crows around the field and create space for the Raiders. Raider wingers Tamara Van Camp and Rhayna Silversides constantly made positive yardage whenever they touched the ball throughout the start of the game, however the Crows defense covered the Raider wingers. Caleigh Silversides finally found a gap in the Crows defense and crossed the line to open the scoring for the Raiders, Jess Oldenburger added the convert, and KRC took a 7-0 lead.
The Bays remain the only undefeated team in the league at 4-0. A bittersweet day for UVic, they won the match but lost the university championship qualification to UBC, just coming up short on point differential.
It’s Week 6 of the BC Premier, the men’s national XVs team are apparently leaving on Sunday for their November tour, so some names will be missing. The big game is UVic v UBC to determine who goes to the national university championships. They are currently ranked #3 and #2 nationally but due to the current qualifying system, one of them will miss out while an unranked team from Alberta will qualify, two teams from Quebec, two from Ontario, one from Atlantic and host TWU. U SPORTS combines BC and Alberta as one region in women’s rugby.
Canada have not lost to #1 ranked England in three matches now, a draw in England and two wins in Toronto and Ottawa. Canada are still ranked #3 despite defeating England in the last two matches, that’s because England had a huge lead in the rankings due to their unbeaten record and NZ keeps winning and maintaining their #2 spot. After this latest round of WXV matches England’s ranking points are 94.20, NZ 92.79, Canada 91.68, France 85.39, Ireland 77.76, Australia 77.18.
Canada scored 5 tries in the match two by Sophie de Goede and singles by Julia Omokhuale, DeLeaka Menin and Savannah Bauder. Even though Canada lost the battle of the scrum again they won in open play, attacking at multiple points from the fringes of the ruck to the sideline. They kept England guessing as to the point of attack and two tries illustrate that well, Sophie de Goede scored a key try by picking up the ball from the ruck and catching defenders looking elsewhere, Savannah Bauder scored a try that put the game out of reach and she was centimetres from the sideline as she beat defenders out wide.
Canada’s next matches will be in April 2027 as part of the Pacific Four series with NZ, Australia, USA. The match highlights from World Rugby and the match report from Rugby Canada are posted below.
UPDATE: UVic defeated Alberta 74-14 and UBC defeated Lethbridge 53-31. Both UVic and UBC qualify for the nationals and will face off on Sunday to determine CanWest #1 ranking. More to follow.
The CanWest championships take place this week, Thursday and Sunday, with the top two teams going to the national finals in Guelph in two weeks time. The winners from today’s matches will qualify and also meet on Sunday to determine final ranking. The UVic and UBC rosters for today are listed below, also the CanWest media release with more information and streaming information.
The Youth Olympics takes place in Senegal from October 31st to November 13th, the Rugby 7s takes place from November 1st to 3rd. Canada are sending 28 athletes to the games, 12 of them rugby 7s players. Other Canadians attending are in archery, gymnastics, badminton, volleyball, boxing, fencing, judo, skateboarding, and wushu (martial arts). Canada are in a pool with South Africa, Germany and host Senegal. The other pool is Argentina, France, Japan, Samoa.
The BCRU are hiring a Marketing Manager, previous Marketing Manager Rob Bartlett is moving on, to St. George’s I believe. Best wishes to him. The job details from BCRU are listed below plus a link to the full job description. My wishes for a new Marketing Manager is someone who will be able to promote the BC Premier and bring some standards in reporting and branding to arguably the top amateur rugby league in North America. The BCRU brand is largely tied in to youth rugby and running club leagues from Div 3 upwards so I’m not sure they have a vision of what the BC Premier could be, and without that vision, how are they going to market it?
Special thanks to Peter Muirhead for putting these standings together, the PlayHQ system that the BCRU uses is still not updating properly. The PlayHQ system can be accessed here for match results, however tries and try bonus points are not working consistently on their system at the present time. The tables below are ordered by Points per Game rather than total points. Photo by BCRN Westshore v Ravens, more match photos on BCRN FB page.
Canada finished on a strong note at the U20 Challenger Cup defeating Brazil 61-24 and claiming 5th place. Host Chile won the tournament defeating Belgium. Canada started the tournament with a big win over Namibia but fell to Belgium and Portugal before their final match against Brazil. Canada weren’t far off the pace to win the tournament, small improvements in decision making, discipline, technical skills and execution could have seen them in the final. As far as individual athletism they matched up with any team in the tournament.