What a result for the BC U19 women’s program, from last place in 2024 to 1st in 2025, kudos to the coaching team and the players. It will be interesting to see what Jake Thiel can do with the new Ravens women’s program in the 2025-26 season. The men returned as Silver medallists after losing a close match to Ontario, who claim their second consecutive Gold.
The BCRU are running Level 1 Officiating courses in September and October in the following locations. Their media release is posted below with a highlight on local referee Kristine Lovatt who recently officiated the Brazil vs Netherlands match. The registration page is here.
I analyzed the July rankings for Canadian men and women XVs programs from 2004 to 2025. It tells a tale of two programs.
The exact question from the reader, in the comments section, was: I remember being young and reading about rugby matches between BC Bears and Ontario Blues and Atlantic Rock. I think there was a team in the Prairies too. Do these teams still exist? What happened to them? Weren’t they supposed to be the step below the national team; a feeder for the national team?
Canada were leading right up to the final whistle but made some poor decisions in the last 5 minutes and lost the match on a Spain penalty kick at the whistle. It’s a game Canada should have won, up a player in the final minutes and camped at the Spain 5 metres due to multiple penalties against Spain. Canada could have kicked for the 3, they could have spun it wide with the penalty advantage, but they decided to keep grinding in the forwards and eventually gave up a penalty. Spain won their lineout, won a couple of penalties in Canada’s half and eventually chose the posts at the whistle. It was a cruel loss for a team that hasn’t had many successes on the field.
World Rugby confirmed what they had hinted at in an earlier media release in April, that the Tier 1 JWC U20 tournament will be expanded from 12 to 16 teams. Today they released more details, the tournament will be hosted by Georgia and that the four extra teams will be Fiji, USA, Japan and Uruguay. Fiji because they were the last team relegated in 2024, and the other three as they finished 2nd to 4th at the 2024 JWRT.
The provincial U17 teams will hold camps at Shawnigan Lake from August 3-7 with matches on August 5-7. The boys will be playing a school from the UK and the Alberta Wolfpack, the girls will play 2 games against the Wolfpack. After the camp 24 players from each squad will be selected for a tour to Ontario for a 3 match series from August 23-31. The boys have brought 30 players to camp and the girls 26 players.
I came across this article through Karl Fix who is planning on taking a U19 team down to Argentina in 2026 and his contact there is Les Cusworth. From a Canadian perspective we’re always looking for lessons that can be learned and applied to make our rugby better, specifically our men’s XVs program, which has hit a low patch. So what is Argentina doing right and what might be relevant in a BC and Canadian context? As a side note I’ll have an opportunity to have a chat with Les Cusworth, so if readers have additional questions they would like me to ask, mention them in the comments or email editor@bcrugbynews.com
The BCRU have announced the men’s and women’s teams to take part in the U19 Canadian Rugby Championships which start next week. The men’s coach is Curry Hitchborn and the women’s coach is Jake Thiel. Last year the men came second to Ontario, losing a close 17-10 match in the final. Ontario also won the women’s title, BC finished with 3 losses and a draw. The teams kick off on July 22nd with both teams facing the Atlantic Rock.
The U20 World Championships wraps up on Saturday with the semi-final rounds completed today. The World Rugby report is below, basically NZ and South Africa will meet in the final. Spain and Ireland will compete in the 11th place playoff, normally that would mean one of them would be relegated but not this year because the U20 Tier 2 competition is in flux and there was no JWRT this year. We’ll also look at what’s in store for the U20 Tier 2 competition next year and where Canada fits in. We finish with some comments from Karl Fix who took a U18 team to Germany this year and plans on taking a U19 team to Argentina next year.