Pride Rebrands to Canadian Development Academy; Phil Mack Added to Coaching Staff; Match vs Arrows Planned
It’s normally a time we look forward to our first rugby matches of the BC season, not so this year with COVID, many of the BC clubs are rolling out their touch and flag rugby plans for the fall. Check with your local club rep for more details.
On the Pacific Pride front we’ve heard Rugby Canada are re-branding it to the Canadian Development Academy to be more “Canada” inclusive.
We hope to get a look at the new crop of Academy players soon, we’ve heard they come from across the country and some from various parts of the world including the UK, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The MLR players are also training with the Academy (in separate groups) until December when they will go to their respective teams. Also a few key U20 players have been added to the training groups.
Phil Mack has been added to the coaching staff and is handling the two Academy groups while Jamie Cudmore and Kingsley Jones work with the MLR group comprised mostly of graduating Academy players.
There is word that there might be an Academy v Arrows match in Winnipeg on Sept. 27th. The Academy and select Manitoba players would play under the banner of a President’s XV vs Toronto Arrows. Hopefully there will be a live stream and we’ll provide updates on that as they’re made available. Manitoba are at COVID Phase 4 (top level), BC remains at Phase 3 for the foreseeable future.
The Academy are also actively searching for props for the program, it seems to be an area they’re concerned about. So if you’re a local coach and have identified some talent there, make sure you reach out to Jamie and Phil.
The mens’s XVs program is planning a November camp, no word where yet, it will be 3 weeks long and bring in domestic players. Hopefully we’ll get a scrimmage or two out of that with potential for streaming.