Canada Announce St John’s for First Round of RWC 2023 Qualifying vs USA – Langford for October Series with South American Team

It was August 12 2006 when Canada and USA met in St. John’s, Newfoundland for the RWC 2007 qualifier. Canada went on to win that match 56-7 and go through as Americas #1. Ric Suggit was coach and Mike James and Morgan Williams were the player reps at the press conference. I remember it well, I had flown out from Vancouver Island for the week and stayed at the modest Memorial University residences to cover the match for BCRN.

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Canada Add Four Names to Touring Squad for Wales and England Tests

Injuries have forced head coach Kingsley Jones to make 2 changes to the 30 player squad, he’s also named 2 extra players for a total of 32 on tour.

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Kingsley Jones Names 30 Player Squad for July Tests vs Wales and England

It’s an interesting selection, first of all two players who weren’t even on the extended list announced two weeks ago are now on the team. Lucas Albornoz and Reegan O’Gorman, both second rows, weren’t mentioned in the extended list but now find themselves in the tour squad. It could have to do with their recent MLR performances or the fact two established second row players, Evan Olmstead and Kyle Baillie, are now “Unavailable for Selection”.

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Canada Announce Long List of 40 Players for July Tests: Travelling Roster Announcement Mid-June

Rugby Canada announced the men’s Canada XVs long list (40 players) for the July tests in a very muted manner. The article originally wasn’t even on the front page just as a list under the men’s XVs program. The list wasn’t alphabetical but seemed to be listed in order of position. My guess is it came from the coach without any media interpretation which may be useful in getting an insight into Kingsley Jones’ thinking on selection.

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USA Name 41 Player Preliminary Roster for July Tests: 75% of Players from MLR Teams

The US have named a 41 player preliminary roster that will be reduced to 30 by late June. It’s a good move and allows the MLR teams to plan early around the disruption of the July tests. Rugby Canada have stated they will release their list by mid-June and whether that’s an extended roster or closer to the travelling 30 man roster, remains to be seen.

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A Look at the Canada Men’s XVs Team: Who Are the Likely 30 Heading to the UK in July

[ed. we’ve no doubt inadvertently overlooked someone, we’ll revisit the selections in a couple of weeks to update the percentages based on new data and reader feedback. Use the comment section below or email editor@bcrugbynews.com to add your thoughts.]

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Hong Kong Rugby Union Terminates Elite Rugby Program for Men’s XVs – How You Can Help Fund the Canadian Elite Men’s XVs Academy

News that Hong Kong has terminated its Elite men’s XVs program due to the financial pressures of COVID should make Canadian rugby supporters take note and resolve to keep its Elite men’s XVs academy funded and running. The Pacific Pride, aka Rugby Canada Development Academy, operating under the coaching of Jamie Cudmore and Phil Mack is one of the few competitive advantages Canada have over their Americas rivals. In order to get to the 2023 World Cup, Canada’s first goal is to finish top 2 in the Americas, and in that context they are looking directly at USA and Uruguay.

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Uruguay Sources Publish New RWC 2023 Americas Qualifying Process: Rugby Canada Haven’t Acknowledged Change Yet

[ed. at the time of publication Rugby Canada haven’t acknowledged the change in qualifying process.]

A journalist from Uruguay, Ignacio Chans, creator of the Uruguay Rugby News twitter.com/RugbyNews_uy has broken the news about the 2023 RWC qualifying process for the Americas. The article, in Spanish, is here.

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National Coach Kingsley Jones Invites 36 Players to Three Week High Performance Camp in BC: 34 of 36 Have Played in the BC Premier League

[ed. when we listed the 34 players from the BC Premier, we only listed each player once starting with the universities, then the clubs. Some players have played for more than one BC Premier club, for example, UVic players Doug Fraser, Jake Ilnicki have also played for CW and Liam Murray and Conor Keys have also played for James Bay.]

The men’s national team will bring together 36 domestic based players for a high performance camp in Langford, BC from from November 9th to 29th.

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A Look at the Canadian Development Academy (Pacific Pride) Players in Camp

Below are a list of players attending the Academy sessions, we’ve added our notes on the players, feel free to use the comments section to add more information. The group a player is assigned to is sometimes dictated by work and school schedule.

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