It was a strong win by the Canada U20 men’s team who went 2-1 at the Oceania U20 tournament defeating Samoa and Tonga. There were 8 separate try scorers in the match with Liam James notching the double. Liam is the son of Canada rugby great Mike James who the announcer called, “the greatest player of Canada rugby of all time” on Liam’s second try (see video highlight below).
The 2025 BCRU AGM is coming up June 21st. Gone are the days of in-person meetings, now it’s done virtually on zoom. The link to the documents and details are here.
One of the interesting documents is the Vote Allocations, votes according to the bylaw document are “based on the Represented Individual Members who have paid annual dues of BC Rugby as of August 31st of each year”. It’s a way of comparing membership growth (or decline) in various regions and clubs.
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It’s 3 in a row for former Canadian women’s coach Francois Ratier as Stade Bordelais won their 3rd Elite 1 title in France, the top club competition for women in France. They defeated Toulouse in the final.
There were 28 Canadians in action in Round 16, 15 starting and 13 in reserves. There’s one week left in the regular season, four teams from each conference go to the playoff round, so in the East NOLA and Anthem are out, in the West it will be either Seattle or San Diego depending on Round 17 results.
It could have been worse, Canada were down 42-0 at 35 minutes into the first half and a point per minute 80-0 hiding wasn’t out of the question. Fiji were playing a high tempo game and Canada didn’t have their heads in the game. Fortunately half time was coming up, a time to regroup, and make some changes. It was a good time for Josh McIndoe to insert himself into the match, picking up an errant Fiji pass that went to ground and take it to the try line. Canada at least finished the half on a high note, down now only 42-7.
The BC Provincial High School Championships wrapped up on Saturday with St. George’s defeating rivals Shawnigan 31-12 to win Gold in AAA Boys. In AA Boys it was Collingwood over Robert Bateman 19-15. In Girls AAA it was G.P Vanier 18-10 over Gleneagle and in Girls AA it was D.W Poppy over Shawnigan 17-7. The full results can be viewed here.
The Island Blue team wrapped up the best of 3 series winning the second game 41-24 to take a 2-0 lead in the series. As in game #1 the half time score was close 12-7 but the Island squad pulled away in the second half to extend the score to 41-7 with 10 minutes remaining. The Mainland team scored a few tries to finish off the match and make the scoreline closer at 41-24.
Well the BCRU have gone down an interesting path this time in their selection of CEO. Welcome to Matthew Carter, as the BCRU media release highlights, former Lotus F1 CEO and Business Development Director for Lille Olympique Sporting Club, a professional soccer team in France. Very impressive stuff that happened between 2013-2018. He hails from Coventry, UK and before his high profile Lotus F1 position he was a senior investment manager with Genii Capital and Bridgehouse Capital. As the BCRU states, “over 25 years of experience in venture capitalism, business development and sports management.”
Rugby Canada announced today that Sean White will be leaving his role as men’s 7s coach at the end of his contract in July. The status of the men’s 7s program is really up in the air, they didn’t directly qualify for the Division 2 series which came with some World Rugby funding, they likely won’t be getting much money from Own the Podium as they don’t look like an Olympic contender at the moment. They probably will compete at the RAN 7s, there’s been no date announced for that, the winner of that tournament will compete at the Division 3 tournament where 2 teams will advance to the Division 2 series.