Canadian Players and Coaches at Rugby Tens Championship in Cape Town
The Rugby Tens Championship kicks off Saturday, November 18th in Cape Town and there is some Canadian representation among the 6 teams participating.
We don’t have the complete rosters yet but we know Temitope Ogunjimi is playing for the Serengeti Elephants. Tournament organizers have featured her on one of the social media graphics with the write up below:
Temitope won a gold medal at the 2019 Pan American Games as a member of the Canada’s Women’s National Rugby Sevens team. She recently played for the Loonies, the Women’s Division Champions at PR7s 2023 in the USA.
Temitope is an accomplished multi-sport athlete who first found success for Canada as a wrestler, winning gold at the 2014 Junior Pan American Games. It was not until her third year of university that she took up rugby full-time. She graduated from the University of Calgary with a degree in Law and Society.
Also playing for the Serengeti team is Renee Gonzalez, who has been capped for Canada in 7s and XVs. Coaching the Serengeti women’s team is Robin MacDowell. Robin has had much coaching success including winning the Premier Rugby 7s title with the Northern Loonies franchise in 2023, both Temi and Renee were on that winning team.
The tournament takes place over 3 days, 18th, 22nd and 25th. The website and social media links are below:
https://www.facebook.com/rugbytens
https://www.instagram.com/rugbytenschampionship/
https://rugbytens.com/
The tournament appears to be live streamed, check the website for links.
Robin is a busy coach, after a week in South Africa, he’s flying to Mexico to coach a Canadian Selects U19 team in the Mexico 7s taking place December 2-3 in Mexico City.