Vancouver Highlanders Announce Five Matches for Summer 2024: Canada Selects, Barbados, Germany, Brazil XV, Canada XV
The Vancouver Highlanders hope to host about 10 matches this summer in the Vancouver area, and they’ve just confirmed the first 5.
The Vancouver Highlanders hope to host about 10 matches this summer in the Vancouver area, and they’ve just confirmed the first 5.
Thanks to Peter Muirhead who put together these league tables for the weekend ending March 3rd 2024.
There were 36 Canadian players in action in Week 1 with some making an impact on the score sheet and the stats department. Spencer Jones scored the first try by a Canadian in MLR 2024 in the Utah v Houston match but it was Dewald Kotze who lit up the scoreboard with a hat trick of tries in the Dallas v LA match, in that match Andrew Coe had two tries for LA and Mitch Richardson added a single for Dallas. In the New England v Anthem match Ben Lesage scored 2 tries and Andrew Quattrin added one for NE.
The Canadian women continue to roll along with a 4th place finish to follow the 3rd in Vancouver. They now sit in 5th place in the series standings, 2 points behind USA. The bottom four teams facing the relegation tournament are Brazil, South Africa, Japan and Spain. There are two tournaments left before the Madrid final, Hong Kong and Singapore. The pools for Hong Kong (Apr 5-7) have been announced, the women are in a pool with USA, Japan and Spain.
The men’s Premier entered Week 9 with 5 weeks to follow before the playoffs. The Lomas, previously undefeated, had dropped to 3rd place with their loss to the Ravens but roared back to demolish UVic this week and claim top spot again. The women’s Premier kicked off this week as well and featured a number of one sided scorelines.
Jake Thiel has been named as the 18th Vancouver Highlanders signing. Although mostly known for his play on the World Rugby 7s series, Jake was the starting #8 for Canada U20 in 2017 and may again be in contention to claim that spot for the senior men’s XVs. Just turning 27 he’s in his prime for the XVs game.
It’s good news for BC rugby fans as they’ll have the opportunity to watch the top 6 women’s teams in the world in their backyard. The tournament takes place over three weekends and the only venue information released so far is that “select games being held in Vancouver at BC Place Stadium”.
The Canada men’s team currently ranked #21 will host Scotland #6 on Saturday, July 6th in Ottawa. The following Friday, July 12th, they’ll host Romania #20 in Ottawa. On Sunday August 25th, they’ll host Japan #12 at BC Place in Vancouver.
This year according to our calculations there are 47 Canadian players in the MLR rosters. There are 24 in the Western Conference and 23 in the Eastern Conference. The largest number of Canadian players are on the New England Free Jacks (12), there are 3 teams with 7 players LA, Dallas and Utah. There’s one team with no Canadians, Houston Sabercats.
Alastair Marshall has been named as the 17th Vancouver Highlanders signing. Originally from Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan and the Regina Rogues rugby club he now plays for UBC in the BC Premier. That makes eight current and former UBC players on the Highlanders to date.