A few items on the Editor’s desk this morning, UVic Vikes men’s team are in Portugal and they’ve won their first two matches. The BCRU has updated the penalties for infractions of the Player Eligibility Rules. There’s a high school player who has started a Petition to persuade BC School Sports to allow him to play rugby this season.
The women’s English Premiership just wrapped Round 11 last weekend and there were 16 Canadian players in action. Exeter had the largest contingent with all 5 of their players in the roster, next were Saracens and Ealing with 3 of the 7 Canadians in action. Still some big names missing like Sophie de Goede and Julia Schell. There’s still 5 weeks left before the April break for the Pacific Four tournament. Gloucester remains top of the standings with Saracens in 2nd and Exeter and Harlequins trailing. The top 4 teams go into the semi-finals in June.
This article is based on a YouTube video interview with Les Cusworth on the United Rugby Fans channel. You can find the full video here. I generally put interviews and podcasts through NotebookLM now to get an executive summary, I find it distills the interview to key points which from a time management point of view is helpful. Not everything in the Argentine model will work in Canada but there are some key points worth considering, basically it’s celebrating the amateur model based on local clubs, keeping travel down and bottom-up growth.
Julianne Zussman gets two appointments in the Pacific Four series, she’s the referee for USA v NZ on April 11th in Sacramento and then USA v Australia on April 17th in Kansas City. Emma Gallagher and Kristine Lovatt are the ARs in both of those matches. Cam Russell is TMO for both of those matches as well. Gallagher is also AR in the USA v Canada match on April 24th in Chicago.
Germany claimed the first tournament title with an upset win over the previously undefeated USA on Day 2. Based on the scoring system from the SVNS 1 tournaments, there’s 3 points for win and a bonus point for a loss by 7 or less. Germany, Kenya and USA all had 4-1 records, Germany picked up a bonus point in their loss to Kenya (-5). The standings in the first tournament would be Germany 13, USA and Kenya 12, Uruguay 8, Belgium 4, Canada 1. With two tournaments left, it’s not looking good for Canada, they’ll have to finish top four in the remaining tournaments and hope a couple of other teams falter. The next tournament is in Uruguay.
It was an entertaining game for viewers with lots of scoring but when looked at from a development perspective where this is supposed to be the Rugby Canada academy team preparing players for higher levels, there are lots of questions to ask. Before asking those questions first kudos to the Pacific Pride for finally getting their streaming act together, this being the second match on their channel. Also kudos to the Atlantic Privateers for making the trip and getting their season off to a strong start.
The USA will host the majority of the Pacific Four series in April with Australia hosting New Zealand in the 6th match. It will be interesting for Canada as Jack Hanratty the former Canadian 7s coach will be in charge of team USA for the first time at this tournament. The PWR league in the UK shuts down for April and resumes at the end of May between Rounds 16 and 17 so all UK based players will be available. There was no sign of Sophie de Goede in the Saracens roster this past weekend so her recovery from injury remains a concern.
Much like the heavy rains that soaked the Jericho pitch before easing as the game wore on, the Ravens laid a deluge of first half tries on Burnaby before the play evened out in the second half.
UBC have all but clinched the CanWest 7s title, it would be their 4th straight title and would match UVic who won 4 titles from 2018 to 2022. There’s one tournament left at UBC in March but with a commanding 6 point lead in the series standings it would not only require UVic to beat UBC but another team to beat UBC as well, unlikely based on current form. Top try scorers in the tournament for UBC Jaime Dickson with 6 tries, Adia Pye, Kiki Idowu, Piper Logan all with 5 tries. For UVic Ivy Poetker was top try scorer with 8 tries, making her the top tournament try scorer and with 7 tries in the first tournament, she’s leading the series try scoring count at 15. Adia Pye with 9 tries in Edmonton and 5 in Victoria is 2nd with 14 tries overall.
Canada had a good Day 2 winning both their games and finally defeating Japan this season, a team that seemed to have their number in the first two tournaments. The result is Canada finished 5th in the tournament and 6th overall as France passed them in the standings. Next up is Vancouver and Canada have been drawn in a pool with Australia, USA and Fiji, the fans will love the Canada v USA rivalry.