Coastal Cup Starts Saturday – A Look at the Pacific Pride Roster
The Coastal Cup kicks off on Saturday and we’re hoping to take a look at the extended rosters of the four teams involved, Pacific Pride, UVic, UBC and TWU. The Pacific Pride are the defending champions.
The Coastal Cup is an important competition as many Canada U20 players will be involved. It also prepares the BC university teams for the national university championships in November.
The Pacific Pride is also a springboard to the MLR and a number of players have gone on to pro contracts after spending a couple of years in the Pride program. There’s a turnover every year in the transition from the fall to the spring season when MLR bound players will leave the program and new players will come in. Already this year we know Neil Trainor has been drafted by the Anthem team in Charlotte. I’d be surprised if there weren’t a few more going to MLR after the fall season, prime candidates would be James Stockwood and Rhys James who are part of the Canada PNC squad, Tyler Matchem who played well for the Canada Selects, and Noah Flesch whose brother plays for Chicago.
Some returning players who impressed last season, Theo Espagnol who also played for the Highlanders this summer, Jaiden John a big unit in the second row, Jesse Kilgour who made the Canada PNC training squad.
There are 12 new players entering the program this fall and we’ll briefly cover their background in the paragraphs below.
Jean-Louis Descoutte played four years at UBC Okanagan, he’s listed as a fullback on the Pride list but he played flyhalf for the Okanagan Heat. Rhys James, who was selected on the Canada PNC squad this year, also played for UBC Okanagan.
Tiarnan Neville is an Irish-Canadian playing with the Galwegian RFC in Galway, he also spent some time with the Arrows Academy the year they won the Coast to Coast Cup.
Cole Harris is from Uxbridge, Ontario and recently went to Durham College. He was a member of the Canada U18 team that played in the Netherlands tournament in 2023.
Justin Tasse a tighthead prop via Montreal and Calgary played with Westshore RFC in the BC Premier last year.
Josh Halliday from TWU, listed as a front row by the Spartans, the 6’5″ 260 lb White Rock, BC player is slotted in as second row for the Pride.
Taine Clague played for UVic in 2023 and was also a member of the Canada U20 team in 2023.
Evan Logan a flanker from Nova Scotia who played university rugby with Dalhousie last year.
Mitch Buie a scrum half from Westshore RFC played BC Premier last season and was on the BC U19 team this summer.
Chris Rose, also a scrum half from Westshore RFC who played some BC Premier last year and was on the BC U19 this summer. He was on the Thunder U18 tour to NZ last August.
Liam Turnbull a wing/centre from the UBCOB Ravens U18 program, listed here as wing but played 12/13 for the BC U19 team this summer.
Rowan Closs another Uxbridge, Ontario player from Durham College. He was a member of the Canada U18 team that played in the Netherlands tournament in 2023.
Sam Blundell listed on the wing, we don’t have a lot of info on him except he made the BC High School 7s All Star team as a Junior while at Brentwood in 2022, so definitely still U20 eligible.
So a quick count shows at least half of the new players are U20 eligible which is encouraging.
Although not listed as a new player for the Pride, Shane Rikley-Krindle played for CW last season in the BC Premier, he was at UVic before that.
There are a couple of names from last year that are missing so curious to see where those players will be going in the fall, and perhaps potentially MLR bound in the spring? Mark Balaski who seems to be the backup #10 for Canada but hasn’t been getting any playing time, hopefully he’ll land a spot somewhere he can get lots of playing time at flyhalf. Matt Klimchuk, where will he play this fall and will he be MLR bound in the spring?
1 Sam Miller, Conor Williams, Cole Harris
2 Theo Espagnol, Neil Trainor, Noah Kyneston
3 Greg McDowell, Tyler Matchem, Justin Tasse, Austin Creighton
4 James Stockwood, Jaiden John
5 Ben James, Josh Halliday
6 Taine Clague, Evan Logan
7 Braden Bruce
8 Charles Taimani
9 Jesse Kilgour, Mitchell Buie, Chris Rose
10 Ty Driscoll, Tiarnan Neville
11 Andrew Cooper, Liam Turnbull
12 Rhys James, Kyle Tremblay, Liam Poulton
13 Shane Rikley-Krindle, Rowan Closs
14 Sam Blundell, Noah Flesch, Ian Jones
15 Jean-Louis Descoutte, James Thiel