from Rugby Canada
Canada’s Men’s Rugby Team’s roster for La Vila International Rugby Cup has been named by Head Coach Kingsley Jones. The 32-player squad will travel to Villajoyosa, Spain this November for the new four-team tournament featuring Canada, Spain, the United States and Brazil.
There’s been a fair bit of commentary on social media about the competition. Canada comes across as one of the winners as they get to play 3 games in August/September against higher ranked teams. Japan don’t seem thrilled with it as they are stuck with two lower ranked teams in their pool. The other pool is Fiji, Samoa, Tonga so the best Japan can do is a final against Fiji, currently #10 vs #12. Neither Fiji or Japan get access to the remaining top 10 teams.
World Rugby has been busy today releasing various media releases. This one specifically deals with the 2027 Rugby World Cup. This has significance for Canada obviously as they’re adding 4 more teams and that gives Canada more opportunity to qualify. The details of the qualification process are yet to be revealed.
by Peter MacDonald
The fifty year friendship and rivalry between these two fraternal clubs resumed at Jericho on a pleasant October day before a good crowd. To add to the competition members of both clubs recently got together and purchased a cup, “The Legacy Cup” to be competed for between the Premier sides annually on a two-game total points basis. Hopefully the two clubs can meet again in the playoffs where UBC will look to make up the now 18 point deficit.
UBC won their 4th consecutive CanWest title with the UVic Vikes finishing 2nd. Both teams will advance to the national finals in Quebec City from November 1st to 5th.
Week 2 of the Premier season kicks off on Saturday. There are four undefeated teams going into Week 2: Pacific Pride, CW, Meraloma and Burnaby.
We ended up 5 for 5 on the predictions this week, 9 for 10 over 2 weeks – a record we’ll no doubt fail to maintain over the course of the season.
from World Rugby
A committed second half saw Canada score an entertaining 42-22 victory over Wales in their opening WXV 1 match.
Canada’s influential captain and number eight Sophie de Goede wasted no time stamping her mark on the game, a strong carry into the 22 set up a series of patient phases near the Welsh try-line. De Goede waited for the perfect opportunity to pounce, spotting a gap in close to dive over.
Finally some good news from Rugby Canada on the coaching front, Sean White has been confirmed as head coach through to Paris 2024. The only question is why only a year when Kingsley Jones was given two years and failed to meet objectives, qualifying for the World Cup. Sean White brought a team back from the brink of falling off the World 7s Series and therefore potentially saving the Vancouver 7s as a stop on the World 7s Series. He deserves this and more. I suppose using Rugby Canada logic, if Canada fail to qualify for Paris 2024 he’s guaranteed a 2 year extension after that.
Knowledge of the tournament was already out in the public domain last week but World Rugby just announced it officially today.
Spain seem to be embracing rugby more lately, and World Rugby seems to be pushing the sun, fun, rugby theme more. Recall that Spain was the first venue announced for the “new and improved” 7s series that World Rugby rolled out, the 7s series finale will be held in Madrid in June.
[editor’s comments below]
You know the joke, an American, an Irishman and a Welshman walk into a bar – the punch line of the joke is Rugby Canada. An American CEO backed by World Rugby money, hires an Irish High Performance Director who extends the contract of a Welsh coach. A coach who oversaw Canada not making the World Cup for the first time in Rugby World Cup history, losing to USA, Uruguay and Chile. A coach who hasn’t been able to get the top European professionals to commit to playing for Canada. A coach who has seen the morale of the men’s XVs program at an all time low and long time supporters walk away from the game in disbelief at Rugby Canada’s decision making.