Category Archives: Front Page

Editorial: Men’s High Performance Rugby, Comparing USA and Canada

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RugbyPass Publishes Article on USA Rugby Head Coach Scott Lawrence; Reviewing Rugby Canada High Performance Plans

RugbyPass, owned by World Rugby, published an article on Scott Lawrence, the USA head coach (and GM), this week. It’s worth a read, it outlines his plans for the men’s XVs rugby program and how the U20 and U18 teams fit into that picture. It also talks about the results he’s getting, 3 wins in November against good teams, Portugal, Spain, Tonga, raising USA to #15 in the world rankings.

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Rugby Canada Hall of Fame 2024

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Rugby Canada HOF Committee Name Nine Inductees for Class of 2024: Eddie Evans, Ed Fairhurst, Barbara Mervin, Ian Hyde-Lay, DTH van der Merwe, Rick Powers, Joyce Henry, Colette McAuley, John Hutchinson

Congratulations to the nine 2024 Hall of Fame inductees. Their profiles are linked below but I have favourite memories for several of them who I’ve crossed paths with in the rugby world.

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BC Bears logo 2024

BC Bears Update – January 2025

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BC Bears Summer Schedule for Senior Women, U19 Men & Women, U17 Boys & Girls, U15 Boys & Girls

The BCRU released its summer schedule for the BC Bears provincial teams. The one group missing is the senior men and it highlights the holding pattern men’s high performance rugby in Canada is currently in. The issue largely goes back to a lack of direction from Rugby Canada on the men’s high performance pathway.

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Community Rugby in Action

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UVic Vikes Men’s Rugby Hosts “Vikes Giving Day” Blood Drive on February 5th 2025

I received a nice note from Ian Smith, one of the UVic Vikes rugby players who is also their fundraising lead. It’s about their Blood Drive initiative to support Canadian Blood Services while also supporting UVic sports through pledges.  You can read the note below which has links to their pledge form and the Canadian Blood Services donor form. Last year over 60 student-athletes and friends donated blood and they reached 127 pledges, a number they hope to exceed this year.

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MacDowell Rugby Academy – January 2025

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Interview with Robin MacDowell on the MacDowell Academy and Release of the MacDowell Performance App

BCRN: Hi Robin, I saw you released a new training app called MacDowell Performance, it’s powered by Athlete Health First. Before we get into the app let’s talk about Athlete Health First, I understand there’s an interesting history there with the company and the founder.

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BCRU logo 2024

BCRU Updates – January 2025

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BCRU “Parts Ways” with CEO David Newson: John Tait to Serve as Interim CEO

I never met David Newson, which is unusual in my role as editor of BCRN, I knew and met all the previous CEO’s but Newson seemed like the type of person who did the obligatory glad handing but never reached out beyond that. He didn’t seem very ambitious in growing rugby in BC. Here’s the article we put up when he was hired in 2022.

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HSBC SVNS Perth – January 24-26

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Pools Drawn for Perth: Canada in Pool with USA, GB, Fiji

The Canadian women will be in a pool with USA, Great Britain and Fiji in Perth. USA sit in 4th place with a 2nd place finish in Cape Town, GB are in 5th place, Canada in 7th place and Fiji in 11th place. The top 8 teams avoid the relegation tournament in LA and compete for the title. There are 3 more tournaments after Perth and before LA, they’re Vancouver, Hong Kong and Singapore.

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Rugby Updates – January 8th 2025

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WFYC Podcast with Jake Thiel; Pacific Pride Players Graduating; Westshore Secondary 7s in March; Thunder Celebration at Mungo Martin House in March

A few local rugby news stories today, a podcast with Jake Thiel showed up on YouTube on the What Fills Your Cup channel. The link is below and a brief Ai summary of the podcast. Also the Pacific Pride announced the players graduating from the program over the winter break. Westshore Secondary 7s announced their tournament for March 14th and the Thunder Indigenous Rugby program announced their celebration at the Mungo Martin House for March 23rd where they’ll award the Bear trophy to the Pacific Pride for winning the Coastal Cup and announce their youth team for the NZ tour, plus announce the winners of the Phil Mack Indigenous player of the year award.

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Local Rugby News – January 2025

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Comox Rapids Girls U18 Tour to Scotland “Adopt an Athlete”; UBC Men’s Rugby Advertises for Social Media Manager

A couple of local BC rugby stories caught my eye today. The Comox U18 girls, they won the provincial girls U18 club title last month, will be touring to Scotland in March, and taking in the Scotland v Wales match. They’re playing 3 games while there. What really impressed me with their fundraising effort, “Adopt an Athlete” is the work they put into the player profiles, making it first person and making the rugby jargon easy to understand for non-rugby people. Well done Comox Rapids! Their intro and a link to the player profiles and donation form is posted below.

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England Premiership Women’s Rugby – January 2025

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Round Twelve Results from English Premier: 12 Canadian Players in Action

Rori Wood got her first start at tighthead for Ealing, Tyson Beukeboom was 2nd row, Julia Schell started at #10 for the Trailfinders. Julia Omokhuale started at blindside flanker for Leicester, Claire Gallagher started at fullback for the Tigers. Loughborough had Krissy Scurfield on the wing, she scored two tries, Abby Duguid at second row, Courtney Holtkamp was in the reserves at #19. Saracens had McKinley Hunt as starting loosehead prop, Gabby Senft at #8, Alysha Corrigan on the wing and Maya Montiel as reserve prop.

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