‘BC Friends of Rugby’ is a group of passionate rugby people who are trying to give back and help grow our sport. This group is led by Eddie Evans, Mark Reid, Morris DeCotiis and John Middleton. They are involved in a number of plans to help support our sport of rugby.
A reader sent in a story from the CW website, posted below. It mentions the 50th anniversary of mini-rugby this year with a shout out to Mick Eckardt. We took a deeper dive into the Daily Colonist archive and came up with some interesting news clippings about Mick, rugby in that era and mini-rugby.
Three Canadian teams claimed titles at the Tropical 7s in 2024. MacDowell Rugby won the senior women’s title, the Oakville Crusaders won the Boys U18 Elite title and Rugby Quebec won the U16 Girls Open title. Congratulations to the players and coaches. Full results can be seen on the tournament results website.
The U15 girls division was the first to wrap up with the South Island Tide winning the title, Celtic Barbarians were second and the North Island Tsunami were third. The U16 boys result was next with the South Island Tide claiming the title, the Edmonton Gold claiming second and Fraser Valley earning third.
The BCRU have released the high performance pathways for athletes hoping to take their rugby to the next level. It covers men’s and women’s rugby from U16 up to the senior level, in both XVs and 7s.
Happening at BC Rugby Clubs throughout the Province every Sunday, Mini Rugby is a safe, non-contact version of the sport.
[note due to snow in Victoria the January 20th matches have been postponed, Vikes vs CWU is postponed until Tuesday, January 23rd at 1pm, Jutes vs DTS is postponed until Saturday, January 27th at 1pm]
This UVic initiative looks like a keeper and hopefully will become an annual event. UVic coaching staff were looking for extra games for their Jutes team, that’s their 3rd squad, made up of first year players, basically the 18 year old age group.
The BCRU have announced Mainland/Island U16 Trial Sessions and a U16-U18 Skills Session in Prince George for girls. Darcy Patterson is the coach and she just returned from Australia with the BC U18 girls where they made the cup quarter-finals at the Global Youth Sevens, losing to eventual winners Australia School Girls. In 2024 the U16 girls will head to Florida for the Tropical 7s, the U18 girls will travel again in December for the Global Youth Sevens.
The Australian School Girls won their home tournament with a 27-12 win over the NZ based Rugby Vault team. The BC U18 team lost to the Australian School Girls in the quarter-finals on Day 2, 29-0. The girls division didn’t have a Plate category unlike the boys division, even though there were more girls teams entered.
On a cool, sunny December late afternoon at Thunderbird Stadium the champions from the mainland and the island entertained and engaged their fans in a game worthy of a provincial final. The Ravens came out on top but there was very little between the two teams and but for a slow start by CW there might have been a different result.