Pacific Pride Players for Second Half of 21/22 Season
The demand for Pacific Pride players among the MLR and 7s program means there’s a lot of new faces to start the second half of the 21/22 season. If you look on Wiki at the list of Pacific Pride 20/21 players, there has been a lot of movement. Moved to the MLR are: Foster DeWitt, Dewald Kotze, Nik Hildebrand, Liam Murray, Tyler Rowland, Mason Flesch, James O’Neill, Michael Smith, Siaki Vikilani, Josh Thiel. Moved to European clubs are: Kaden Duguid. Moved to the 7s program are: Thomas Isherwood, Brennig Prevost, Alex Russell, Brock Webster.
There are a 11 players who were new in the fall, 4 players are in their 2nd year and 5 players are in their 3rd year. There are 18 new players starting the second half of the season. It will be a tall order to get the team in top playing form by January 22nd, if the BC Premier season does indeed kick off, pending any new COVID regulations. There are a lot of new players in the tight five, it will be a rapid learning curve for them once the competiton starts. There’s some experience in the backrow with Cody Nhanala and Taitusi Vikilani. The halfbacks are young, but there’s some experience when the ball gets out wide with D’Shawn Bowen, Isaac Olson, Sion Griffiths, Anton Ngongo.
There are some interesting names among the newbies, Noah Flesch, younger brother of Mason Flesch. Alistair Bruce, a young player from Bishops College in South Africa, who obviously has some Canada-eligible connection. There are a number of Canada U20 and Canada U18 alumni as you would expect. Feel free to add additional information in the comments section.
We look forward to getting to know the players better as the season progresses and posting some photos of their matches.
Loosehead
Aaron Clarke – Pacific Pride year 1
Tyler Matchem – Nova Scotia Keltics, played Canada U18 in 2019
Willem den Ouden – Canada U20
Hookers
Owen Lavado – Laurier Univerity
Peter Ingoldsby – Canada U20 in 2018, Exmouth RFC in UK
Tyler Wong – Pacific Pride year 2
Tighthead
Chris Atkinson – Pacific Pride year 2
Daniel Cooper – Durham College
Kyle Steeves – Manitoba
Second Row
Thomas Davidson – Pacific Pride year 3
Alistair Bruce – Bishops College, SA
Callum O’Neil – Canada U20
Conor Turner – Calgary Hornets
Callum Botcher – Canada U18, UBC, BC Bears
Backrows
Ethan Fryer – Pacific Pride year 1
Noah Flesch – Cobourg, younger brother of Mason Flesch
Matt Klimchuk – Pacific Pride year 1
Taitusi Vikilani – Pacific Pride year 3
Cody Nhanala – Pacific Pride year 3
Zephyr Melnyk – Canada U20, Nanaimo
Zack Raymond – St. Lawrence College
Scrumhalves
Sam Reimer – Pacific Pride year 1
Sean Snyman – Canada U18
Caleb Barker – Pacific Pride year 1
First Five
Max Stewart – Pacific Pride year 1
Kai Khan – James Bay
Justin Taylor – Durham College
Centres
Sion Griffiths – Pacific Pride year 2
Isaac Olson – Pacific Pride year 2
Dawson Fatoric – Pacific Pride year 1
Taylor De Souza – Pacific Pride year 1
Wings
D’Shawn Bowen – Pacific Pride year 3
Anton Ngongo – Pacific Pride year 3
Gabriel Smith – Pacific Pride year 1
Oliver Mackenzie – Pacific Pride year 1
Kal Sager – Canada U18
Jack Morris – University of Guelph
Fullback
Mark Balaski – Pacific Pride year 1