There were 20 Canadian players in action in Week 9, 13 starters and 7 in reserve. Houston remains top in the West on total points but Utah have a game in hand and are top when considering points per match. Chicago are clear leaders in the East, leading in both categories.
Coach Christiaan Esterhuizen has selected 32 players to make the trip to Fiji in May/June to play Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. There is no JWRT U20 championship this year, and there’s been no mention from World Rugby on what future plans are for U20 programs outside of the Tier 1 nations who are holding their Junior World U20 Championships in June/July in Italy.
The BC Premier quarter-finals are here, the #1 Ravens and #2 UBC have a bye. The semi-finals take place April 26th with Westshore @ Ravens and Meraloma @ UBC. Results of other division playoff matches are listed below.
Canada finished 4th in Krakow with Day 2 losses to Samoa and Germany. That result gives them a 3rd place finish in the Challenger Series and qualification for the promotion tournament in LA in May. Canada earned a 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finish over the series, Portugal won two tournaments and Chile, which didn’t advance, won one tournament. The four teams advancing are Portugal, Germany, Canada, Samoa.
The Canadian women’s XVs team will be busy this spring and summer as they prepare for the World Cup in August. They’ve added Ireland as part of the build up, with a note in their news release, “additional match announcements for Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team will be made shortly.”.
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.
Round 8 of MLR saw 20 Canadians in action, 11 starting and 9 in reserves. Mason Flesch and Lucas Rumball scored tries for Chicago in their win over San Diego. Chicago remains top in the East and Houston claims top in the West. Lucas Rumball was named to the MLR Team of the Week.
Thanks to Peter Muirhead who put together these league tables for the weekend of April 5th 2025. This is the final standings with the playoffs set for next weekend April 12th. There may be slight variations as the competition committee hasn’t finalized all matches, for example, Women’s Div 1, JBAA to host #6 but as Bayside has reportedly opted out of the playoffs, United may fill the gap, otherwise JBAA may get a first round bye. Check the BCRU fixtures page for updates on the weekend schedule.
Phil Smith has come up with a great resource for high school rugby on the Island and in BC. It’s a newsletter “Covering High School Rugby on Vancouver Island and British Columbia”. We’ve included a link below to download the full .pdf version which is formatted and includes photos. We’ve also copied some of the text below for a quick read.
Canada finished 3rd in Singapore, losing to Australia in the Cup semi-finals but defeating France in the 3rd place playoff. Canada finish the series in 4th as they prepare for the championship tournament in LA in May. The teams going to the relegation tournament are Brazil, China, Ireland and Spain.