With little rugby happening in BC and Canada right now I thought I’d go back to January 2020 and revisit the Canada U18 tour to California to take on the USA U18 teams and then a couple of touring sides from South Africa. The tour started in December 2019 and finished up in January 2020. The tour included 6 games in total with 4 wins and 2 losses for the Canadian teams.
A couple of events are coming up in January for the Thunder Indigenous Rugby program. First is a youth rugby camp at White Rock on January 25-26. The registration link is here, you can also email jlyall@thunderrugby.ca
Influencer, it’s a term that’s taken on new meaning over the last decade, even the dictionaries have included the new twist, “a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.” Instagram and Tik Tok are probably the most talked about social media platforms among the younger generations. In this article we look at Instagram numbers.
I was thinking on January 1st I’d write an article about what I hoped for in 2025 for Canadian rugby. Obviously the women to do well at the World Cup in England and the men in the World Cup qualifiers but my thoughts turned to the U20 men, that’s where I really was hoping we would see some improvements in 2025. I don’t know what Rugby Canada and their high performance director, Stephen Aboud, have planned for them.
The big news in November and December was the change in head coach for men’s XVs team, Kingsley Jones was out and Steve Meehan was in. A lot of people were hoping Jamie Cudmore would make a comeback but it wasn’t to be. UBC won the women’s university title, a first for BC and ETS won the men’s university title, a first for Quebec.
In September the BC leagues started, first with the Coastal Cup, then the BC Premier and lower divisions. In national team news the men’s XVs lost to Tonga to finish last in the Pacific Nations Cup, in 2025 it will serve as the World Cup qualifier. The women’s XVs defeated France in their first match of the WXV1 which was being hosted in Vancouver.
The summer months clearly pointed out the different directions the national men’s and women’s programs were going. The women’s 7s won Olympic Silver, the men’s 7s failed to qualify for the Olympics. The U20 women shone in Wales winning the Trans-Atlantic Quad series which included Wales, England and USA. The U20 men lost the JWRT qualifier series to USA 74-39 over two games. The women’s XVs had just won the Pacific Four title in May, the men lost their Pacific Nations Cup matches.
In April the BC club season reaches the semi-finals stage, the high school rugby season is just kicking off. On the national team scene the Hong Kong 7s wraps up and the Canada women start their Pacific Four campaign with a win over USA. Rugby Canada issues its AGM reports and financials and Sally Dennis steps down as Chair of the Board.
We look at some of the top rugby stories in BC and Canada during February and March 2024. The BC Premier re-started in February with Week 7, mini-rugby ramped up, the BCRU announced its high performance pathways for the year. The Vancouver 7s and the invitational youth tournament took place. Rugby Canada announced the 3 home tests during the summer for the men’s XVs team. World Rugby announced Scotland as the host of the JWRT U20 championships. MLR preseason started with Seattle taking on the Canada Selects.
There were a lot of key rugby events and announcements in January 2024. The Vancouver Highlanders came on the scene and announced they would name their 25 player roster over the following 12 weeks. We’ll see next week whether there’s some Highlanders activity to kick of the new year.