Canada can rise to #2 in the World Rugby rankings overtaking NZ on Sunday with a win over France. The result of the NZ vs Ireland match won’t improve NZ’s World Rugby ranking due to the large ranking difference between NZ and Ireland.
Rugby Canada made a strange post on Instagram today that seemed out of character and out of date. It referenced an October 2023 World Rugby Council decision, that came into effect on August 1 2024, and it’s now September 17th. There was no corresponding World Rugby announcement except the one in August. The Rugby Canada article is posted below.
The question of whether Canada would still host the 7s Series in 2025, now that the men’s team are no longer part of the core group, has been answered. Yes, Vancouver will be the 4th stop on the 2025 series.
Canada failed to make the 2023 World Cup, it was the first time in history the men’s XVs failed to qualify. The 2027 World Cup in Australia is expanded to 24 teams, so 4 more teams will qualify for the tournament.
Three BC match officials have been named to the World Rugby appointments for the WXV tournaments. Julianne Zussman will officiate at WXV 1 in Vancouver, Chris Assmus will be TMO at WXV 2 in South Africa and Shanda Assmus will officiate at WXV 3 in Dubai. All tournaments take place over September and October this year.
World Rugby has announced details of further trials on the 20 minute red card, it will include competitions Canada are involved with this summer including WXV, U20 Trophy and Pacific Nations Cup. A player receiving a red card will have to sit out the match and then receive a two or four week ban, depending on severity, his team however will be able to replace him in the match after 20 minutes.
World Rugby has outlined the next steps in the process of reimagining rugby’s entertainment factor, part of a wider mission to grow audience share over the next decade.
World Rugby has announced a partnership with USA Rugby and MLR to launch a new MLR expansion club in Charlotte, North Carolina, named Anthem Rugby Carolina. The initial roster will “feature players from various MLR teams who are eligible to compete on behalf of the USA in international competition”.
The repechage tournament for the Paris Olympic 7s was announced by World Rugby today. It will be held in Monaco on June 21-23. The women’s team earned their way into the Olympics by winning the RAN tournament, fortunately the USA didn’t attend the women’s RAN tournament as they had already qualified as a top 4 finisher in the World Rugby 7s series. The men weren’t as fortunate and lost to USA in the RAN tournament forcing them to qualify through the repechage tournament.
The Tier 2 competition to gain promotion to the World Rugby 7s series has been announced along with the qualifying teams. Canada are in the Tier 1 competition but if either the men or women finish in places 9 to 12 at the end of the season, they’ll have to compete against the top 4 from this group in an 8 team tournament, the top 4 earning their place in the 2025 Tier 1 series.