Photos (20) with Commentary from Canada Women’s West Camp

The Canadian women’s XVs team held their west camp the weekend of May 16-17 in Langford. The intrasquad scrimmage took place May 17th prior to the men’s Island v Ontario match. We’ve posted 20 photos below with commentary. We missed some player IDs, feel free to add info via the comment section. One interesting point I noticed was that Christiaan Eisterhuizen was heavily involved in the coaching along with Kevin Rouet. Christiaan has been used in a multi-purpose coaching role with the Pacific Pride, men’s U20, and men’s 7s. With rumours of the Pride not returning will he take on some of the Langford based training of the women’s program?

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Rugby Canada Announce Regional ID/Development Camps for Women’s XVs – West Camp IntraSquad Match Prior to Island v Ontario Men’s XVs

Rugby Canada have announced East and West camps, the East camp took place last week, the West camp is taking place this coming weekend. The VIRU poster announced a “Canada Women’s Intersquad” prior to the Ontario v Island Tide match, these announcements lineup to expect a West camp intrasquad match on Sunday. The Rugby Canada media release didn’t mention which players are attending which camp but these are the players identified from BC and Alberta. We’ll try to get more details on which players are at the West camp and what the rosters will be for the intrasquad match

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Canada to Host England for Rugby Rematch Tour: First Match October 16th in Toronto

The national women’s XVs team are going to have a busy fall, first they’re heading to Europe in September to prepare for matches against England (Sept 19th), France (Sept 26th) and Scotland (??). Then they return home and host England on October 16th in Toronto, with one more match to follow to complete the two game Rugby Rematch Tour. The details of the second match haven’t been announced yet. That’s five high level games over two months! [UPDATE: 2nd match announced for Ottawa October 23rd.]

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Canada Defeat USA 50-12 Behind Dominant Scrum Performance

There’s no doubt Canada’s scrum set the platform for a dominant performance by Canada. The tight five of Brittany Kassil, Emily Tuttosi, DaLeaka Menin, Julia Omokhuale, Laetitia Royer deserve accolades in this win. Sophie de Goede is returning to her Player of the Year form and #8 is definitely her position. Taylor Perry floated some beautiful passes out to the wing to enable tries by Aurora Bowie and Asia Hogan-Rochester. Hogan-Rochester scored a try in each game of the series and is a star-level player in both  XVs and 7s. Alex Tessier was solid throughout, leading as captain. Canada fell behind early but didn’t panic and after Sophie de Goede scored Canada’s first try at the 22′ mark, it was all Canada after that.

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Canada Fall to 3rd in World Ranking with Loss to NZ: Video Highlights

Canada were outplayed on the day by the team that took over their #2 ranking, NZ. NZ rise to 2nd and Canada drop to 3rd. Canada were ahead at the half 14-10 but were completely outplayed in the second half. Two intercept tries by NZ in the last quarter highlighted the lack of imagination in Canada’s attack and inability to adapt to the NZ defensive strategy. NZ threw their outside defenders up fast and Canada kept trying to spread it wide without using any inside runners. Add in the advantage that NZ had at the breakdown, where slow Canadian support and isolated runners were punished with multiple turnovers, and it was a 26-0 2nd half in favour of NZ.

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Canada Defeat Australia 24-0 in Blustery Conditions

It wasn’t ideal playing conditions, a water logged field, driving rain and a weather delay due to lightning but Canada managed to score four tries for a bonus point while keeping Australia off the board. It wasn’t champagne rugby but Canada’s defence got the job done. Outstanding for Canada were Justine Pelletier at scrum half, Julia Omokhuale in the second row, Pam Buisa at flanker and Brittany Kassil at loosehead prop.

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Canada U21 Women Defeat England U21: Finish Tour with 3-0 Record

Canada U21 women have finished their tour in style with a 59-21 win over England. They defeated Ireland 48-24 and the British Army 58-10. A composite 165-55 scoreline, not bad for a team of Canadian university students playing teams (Ireland, England) preparing for the U21 Six Nations in April.

Scorers for Canada in the England match were:

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Pacific Four Series Schedule Announced: USA to Host Five Matches in April, Australia to Host One Match

The USA will host the majority of the Pacific Four series in April with Australia hosting New Zealand in the 6th match. It will be interesting for Canada as Jack Hanratty the former Canadian 7s coach will be in charge of team USA for the first time at this tournament. The PWR league in the UK shuts down for April and resumes at the end of May between Rounds 16 and 17 so all UK based players will be available. There was no sign of Sophie de Goede in the Saracens roster this past weekend so her recovery from injury remains a concern.

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Summary of RWC Post Match Interview with Kevin Rouet and Alex Tessier

The World Cup is over, Canadian rugby had its brief moment in the sun but now what? How to build on that momentum? That’s the question, there is no simple answer presented in this article but we’ll start with the post-match interview with coach Kevin Rouet and Alex Tessier. Below you will find the video, the summary of the interview, the transcript and a google trend graph that shows the spike that “women’s rugby” enjoyed over the past week.

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