It wasn’t the final most would have expected, that would have been a Canada v USA matchup for Gold and Silver but Brazil were the surprise team of the tournament defeating Canada in the semi-finals and USA in the finals. Brazil won Gold and USA Silver. In the men’s tournament it was Argentina Gold, Uruguay Silver and Chile Bronze. It would have been a good learning experience for a Canadian men’s U20 team.
The BC women’s programs have been on a tear recently, winning the national U19 XVs title and now the Canada Games U18 7s title. They defeated Ontario in the final 22-10 to win Gold, Alberta claimed Bronze. The men came up second best to Ontario for the second time this summer, losing the U19 XVs title and now the Canada Games U20 7s title. BC claimed Silver in both cases. It was a close 17-12 loss with Ontario keeping their nerve and scoring the winning try at the whistle. Quebec claimed Bronze with a 17-15 win over Alberta.
Almost 90 U15 athletes have been invited to the Shawnigan “Build a Bear” Camp from July 27-August 1. The focus is on skill building and game understanding under the tutelage of an impressive list of coaches. The U17 camp takes place the following week and includes a few matches, that press release can be viewed here.
What a result for the BC U19 women’s program, from last place in 2024 to 1st in 2025, kudos to the coaching team and the players. It will be interesting to see what Jake Thiel can do with the new Ravens women’s program in the 2025-26 season. The men returned as Silver medallists after losing a close match to Ontario, who claim their second consecutive Gold.
The provincial U17 teams will hold camps at Shawnigan Lake from August 3-7 with matches on August 5-7. The boys will be playing a school from the UK and the Alberta Wolfpack, the girls will play 2 games against the Wolfpack. After the camp 24 players from each squad will be selected for a tour to Ontario for a 3 match series from August 23-31. The boys have brought 30 players to camp and the girls 26 players.
The BCRU have announced the men’s and women’s teams to take part in the U19 Canadian Rugby Championships which start next week. The men’s coach is Curry Hitchborn and the women’s coach is Jake Thiel. Last year the men came second to Ontario, losing a close 17-10 match in the final. Ontario also won the women’s title, BC finished with 3 losses and a draw. The teams kick off on July 22nd with both teams facing the Atlantic Rock.
The U20 World Championships wraps up on Saturday with the semi-final rounds completed today. The World Rugby report is below, basically NZ and South Africa will meet in the final. Spain and Ireland will compete in the 11th place playoff, normally that would mean one of them would be relegated but not this year because the U20 Tier 2 competition is in flux and there was no JWRT this year. We’ll also look at what’s in store for the U20 Tier 2 competition next year and where Canada fits in. We finish with some comments from Karl Fix who took a U18 team to Germany this year and plans on taking a U19 team to Argentina next year.
The Vancouver Wave dominated the boys competition winning Gold at the U19, U17 and U15 levels. The Island Tide dominated the girls competition winning Gold at the U19, U17 and Silver at the U15 levels, also claiming Silver in the boys U15. The Fraser Valley won Gold in the U15 girls and Silver in the U19, U17 girls and U17 boys. The Interior had their best showing in the U19 boys division, winning Silver.
An excellent end of tour match for the U18 Dog River Howlers as they defeated the German National U18 team 24-15 to finish the tour with 3 wins from 3 games. The team was predominantly a BC U18 team with 23 of the 28 tour players from BC and coaches from St. George’s and Shawnigan schools. The match video can be viewed here.
This year the PRCs have a slight change, less teams, higher quality. The number of teams have been reduced to four representing the four main regions of BC: Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Fraser Valley and Interior. There was an earlier post in March that explained those changes.