USA named their 30 player squad for 3 matches in July, a warmup game against the French Barbarians and the home and away World Cup Qualifier series against Chile. Of the 30 players 22 are from MLR (8 from European clubs) and interestingly, 13 of the 22 made the weekly MLR First XV list on one or more occasions.
This is actually an improvement for Canada, replacing a Barbarians match with a full test match against a higher ranked opponent. Spain are ranked 15th, Canada are ranked 21st. Canada’s opponent on July 2nd will be 27th ranked Belgium.
The 32 players to travel to NZ for the Pacific Four Tournament have been named. Comparing the list to the team from the November 2021 tour, there’s one outstanding name missing and that’s the #10 Emily Belchos De Goede. She started at fullback in the first test against USA but then started at #10 for the second win against the USA and the win over Wales. She looked like the first choice for #10 going forward. Alex Tessier started at #10 in the first USA match and may be the first choice #10 now, although Taylor Perry (formerly Taylor Black) would be in the running as well.
Rugby Canada released their 58 player list for the East v West camp taking place this week in Guelph, Ontario. The RC press release is appended below. It’s interesting to breakdown the BC numbers.
The demand for Pacific Pride players among the MLR and 7s program means there’s a lot of new faces to start the second half of the 21/22 season. If you look on Wiki at the list of Pacific Pride 20/21 players, there has been a lot of movement. Moved to the MLR are: Foster DeWitt, Dewald Kotze, Nik Hildebrand, Liam Murray, Tyler Rowland, Mason Flesch, James O’Neill, Michael Smith, Siaki Vikilani, Josh Thiel. Moved to European clubs are: Kaden Duguid. Moved to the 7s program are: Thomas Isherwood, Brennig Prevost, Alex Russell, Brock Webster.
The Canadian men’s XVs team will end a horrendous year with one bright glimmer, a win against Belgium with 14 men. Michael Smith received a red card at the 17 minute mark and Canada had to play short for the remainder of the match. The play looked innocuous enough in real time, the ref didn’t pick it up but the TMO did after the fact. Smith’s shoulder made contact with a player’s head while the player was on the ground trying to wrestle the ball away from Tyler Rowland.
Canada were leading in the match 17-15 with time showing elapsed on the on-screen clock. The forwards were trying to run the clock down with pick and goes but when Conor Keys had a go, he hit the ground in an awkward position, the support was a fraction late arriving and Portugal won the penalty.
If anyone thought there would be decisive action taken after Rugby Canada failed to qualify for the World Cup, think again. Rugby Canada is operating as normal, some might say in a state of denial. We’ll cover this in more detail later in the week, including the video by Kingsley Jones where he basically says, “I plan on being here for the next four years”.
There will be a long hard look at Canada’s men’s XVs program and the leadership at Rugby Canada after they were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup for the first time since its inception in 1987. Chile were the better team on the day and played with an intensity that was lacking for Canada.
World Rugby officially announced the November tour schedule. For Canada men that means a trip to Portugal and Belgium, for the women they have two tests against the USA before taking off to England and Wales.