From the Editor’s Desk: Canada West v American Raptors, Canada U20, PRCs, High School Rugby and Cole Davis to Atlanta
The BC Club finals are over so in BC the question is, what’s next?
This Saturday the American Raptors are visiting to take on the Canada West team, I’m expecting some PR from Rugby Canada on that soon. The game was going to take place at Starlight Stadium but it’s now been moved to Shawnigan Lake. The Raptors put 100+ points on the Seattle club team last weekend so they have some firepower.
The Raptors grew out of the Glendale Raptors MLR team, they dropped out of the MLR league and focused on nurturing American talent, specifically focusing on football players. So I’m expecting a big, athletic team with some rugby talent at the skill positions. The Canada West team will largely be from the Pride, UBC and other Premier sides. We should see a roster later in the week.
Speaking of talent, Cole Davis has signed with Atlanta in the MLR, he wasn’t getting any playing time with Austin. I, personally, thought he was the next 7s star for Canada when he scored 3 tries in his 8 games in 2019. He could attack and play defence. He was out with a long term injury and never found his way back to 7s. Here’s hoping he gets a lot of playing time with Atlanta.
I see training is ramping up for the PRCs, the Provincial Regional Championships, the age-grade regional championships in BC. That takes place over the Canada Day long weekend and regions will be starting to ID players and hold practices this month.
The high school rugby season is beginning, the provincial 7s tournament already took place and the focus will be on XVs now. St. George’s won both the junior and senior titles in 7s.
Canada’s men’s U20 will be in a tournament this summer in Toronto with Portugal, Spain and Uruguay from August 13-21st. There will be a camp June 27-July 6th at Shawnigan to select the squad.
Any other news to share, post in comments or email editor@bcrugbynews.com