Kamloops Rugby Club Senior squads were in action this weekend. Players loaded the bus at Exhibition Park, leaving at 5:45am to make their way down to the lower mainland. The ladies were dropped off in Coquitlam for their Fixture versus United while the men carried on for their game at the Meralomas.
The University of Guelph became the first Ontario university to claim the men’s national university title when they defeated hosts ETS 18-13 on Sunday. In the Bronze medal match it was UBC over UVic 27-12. UBC had won 5 of the first 6 championships with UVic winning the other, ETS broke the BC dominance last year and Guelph have put their name on the cup this year.
Week 7 wrapped with Lomas finding their form at home and getting back in the win column after a four game losing streak. Ravens continue to excel as they look to defend their title. Westshore edge Caps in a close match and Burnaby dominate in road win at CW. In women’s Premier, Thunderbirds welcome return of uni players and establish their championship form, Abby keeps it close at home and CW hand Lomas their first loss.
Canada can take some solace from their never give up attitude but the match was over by 53′ when Georgia were up 31-3. Again the Canada backline didn’t have much to show, the forwards couldn’t consistently break the gain line and often went backwards. Canada had to resort to a kicking game which netted them some territory gains and kept Georgia in their own end. When Georgia decided to start running the ball back it caused some problems for the Canadian defence. The Georgia winger, #14 Shalva Aptsiauri, scored 3 tries and set up a fourth with an offload at the goal line. Canada’s scrum was under pressure during the match and gave up some crucial penalties.
MacDowell Rugby are coming off a successful tour to Mexico and are now focused on December’s Global Youth Sevens in NZ. Spots are still open on the boys and girls U18 teams. The application form is here.
The Armistice, an agreement to end the fighting of the First World War as a prelude to peace negotiations, began at 11am on 11 November 1918. That was the history behind Armistice or Remembrance Day. “At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month – we will remember them”. We take a look at how rugby in Victoria was part of the Remembrance Day events in the years after World War II and as recent as 1987.
The Canadian Classics wrapped up their tournament with a 37-15 win over USA. They finished the tournament with a 2-1 record, defeating the Lions and USA, and only losing to eventual winner Argentina. The match video and roster is posted below.
It was pretty much the game expected by most pundits when the 21st ranked team hosted the 24th ranked team. There wasn’t much backline brilliance and the Romanian scrum dominated the match. The first 12 points from Romania came from the boot with infractions by Canada inside their own half, one at the breakdown, one at the lineout and two at the scrum. It was actually Canada and Mason Flesch who scored the first try, 12-7 at the half.
There’s a good mix of talent in the training squads announced for both the men and women. The camp started November 6th and the men’s squad will be preparing for the RAN 7s tournament in Trinidad starting November 21st, the women’s squad will be preparing for the SVNS series in Dubai starting November 29th.
Utah Warriors announced they are ceasing operations for the upcoming MLR season, that leaves 6 teams remaining from the 11 that competed in 2025. The future of the league looks to be on shaky ground.
The concern from Canada is how that will affect Canadian players, they were already impacted by the announcement earlier by MLR that imports would be limited on teams in 2026 and for the first time Canadian players would be counted as imports. The reduced opportunities to play professional rugby have taken another hit.