This is the 2nd last weekend of the regular season before the playoffs start on April 20th. The top 6 make the playoffs, the Pride aren’t eligible so #7 in the standings is the last playoff spot.
The highlight so far this week was Dewald Kotze scoring 5 tries for Dallas in the match against Seattle. Rob Povey got his first start at #10 for Utah, Tyler Wong got his first appearance in the reserves. Cali Martinez earned his second start at tighthead prop for Old Glory.
A good initiative by the Highlanders as they look at future players who might fill their ranks in years to come. It’s long range planning at its best. We’ve also updated the Highlanders news since our last post, appended below.
A reader sent in a story from the CW website, posted below. It mentions the 50th anniversary of mini-rugby this year with a shout out to Mick Eckardt. We took a deeper dive into the Daily Colonist archive and came up with some interesting news clippings about Mick, rugby in that era and mini-rugby.
With only four matches this weekend it was the lowest number of Canadians playing this season, 8 starters, 7 in reserve for a total of 15 in action. There are four players who have been starters in all 5 weeks, Mason Flesch for Chicago and Dewald Kotze, Mitch Richardson and Nic Benn for Dallas.
Three Canadian teams claimed titles at the Tropical 7s in 2024. MacDowell Rugby won the senior women’s title, the Oakville Crusaders won the Boys U18 Elite title and Rugby Quebec won the U16 Girls Open title. Congratulations to the players and coaches. Full results can be seen on the tournament results website.
With the Easter weekend upon us, the BC Rugby leagues taking a break for the weekend, I thought I’d turn attention to a question some may be pondering now, who will be the halfbacks for Canada when they start play this summer?
The BCRU has confirmed that the Burnaby Rugby Club will host the 2024 BC club finals on May 4th. There will be 8 championships decided from Premier down to Division 3. Ticket prices are listed at $20 at the venue, or $15 pre-event online.
On a miserable rainy day before a lively, full house crowd at Klahanie the Capilanos threw a scare into the Ravens before the visitors pulled away for the win in the last 20 minutes. It was a quality game and Raven fullback Nick Blain after the game commented that it was one of the toughest games they’ve had all season. Kudos to the Caps for ignoring the record and continuing to play good rugby.
The 1932 tour wasn’t the first Canadian rugby tour but it was the first tour under the auspices of the Rugby Union of Canada, which was formed in 1929. The tour booklet makes mention of the 1902-1903 tour to the UK which was the first Canada tour, it also references the 1930 incoming Japan tour to BC which acted as a foundation for this 1932 tour.