CW Rugby
Cinderella Saga
The table was set at The Mac when the ghosts of Bateau, Mole, GG, Swinson, E-balls, Duke, Al Cave and Bubba carried The Crows to an upset victory over the favoured Westshore Velox, in the Men’s 3rd Div. B.C. Final. A toast to many a fine, Liftspan’s past! Well done, Kelowna. The women got...
BIG GAME Preview
Tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. @ Mac Donald Park the B.C. Women’s Premier Final takes place between Velox Westshore and CW. This will be the fourth encounter this season between the two top women’s teams. The results have all gone Velox-way. Betting with one’s head would see one wager this way...
The Story So Far.....
Competing in the BC Premiership finals for women’s rugby is new to Castaway Wanderers, but the tradition of quality rugby on Vancouver Island is not. “When we (re)started the senior women’s rugby program in 2015, we had to draw on all our strengths. We knew we had to have a feeder program,...
Monday's Musings
Rugby Canada Recognition Female Coach of the Year Award: Anna Wray Anna is a Rugby Canada Women’s 15's team alumni who has remained involved in rugby and gives back to the sport she loves by coaching the CW girls' teams. She was instrumental in the program startup some five years ago....
..........And then there were Two
Britt's Boot Does Damage! With 22 points, the day might have been expected to be called The Jess Neilson Show however, as with all CW women’s games witnessed by this critic, win or lose, it was all about TEAM. The game was only two minutes old when CW won a scrum, Waters observantly saw...
A Meteoric Rise
It has been a season far beyond the wildest imagination for the CW Women’s Premier team. In their inaugural season they have finished in second place on the ladder, behind B.C. Champs, Westshore and have thus earned home field advantage for their semi-final match against Seattle Saracens....
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
In response to a reader’s question. Here it is – all of the OBHS squad - B.C. Champs. CW Age grade players – Amelia Gordon, Immy White, Kelsey White, Aya Timmer, Adrienne Graham, Rae-Lyn Parkins, Sophie De Goede, Rachel Kinahan, Caroline Crossley. Other team members – Lindsay Simpson,...
Monday's Musings
Everything’s coming up Sevens! It has been seven days since the keyboard has been tapped and what a week it has been! Must start with Langford. Did the English women ever look the goods in that Final? England’s full-on professional approach is starting to pay dividends. Canada’s performance...
Monday's Musings
SEVENS TEAMS SPUTTER Canada Men’s and Women’s Sevens programs received a definite come-uppance over the weekend. The Women who started with great élan winning four in a row, all of a sudden came up against eventual winners, Australia. At the moment, the Aussies are a cut above the rest. The...
Boot Goes to Barbs
It was a veritable Who’s Who of CW mini and age grade “grads” on show at U.Vic’s Centennial Stadium last night. A tip of The Ruggernut’s cap to the winners, Oak Bay Barbs for their solid victory and overall lead in the series, over SMUS, 31 – 10. A very good partisan crowd was assembled to...
Thursday Rugby
6:30 tonight at UVic's Centennial Stadium Action tonight is for the 22nd time between the storied rugby programs of SMUS and Oak Bay HS. Both of these teams contain the majority of CW U18 lads who won the B.C. Championship in the Fall. The overall results between the two schools are; 10 - 10 -...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
A Plethora of Weekend Action This weekend offers a real smorgasbord of rugby, both locally and internationally. The local action starts at Windsor on Saturday, 11:30 a.m. when the Tricolours take on Westshore in a vitally important game. CW has not beaten Westshore this year, yet stands atop...
Monday's Musings
Sarries Douse Playoff Hopes It was never going to be easy however, when the dust had settled, the one difference had gone Seattle’s way in an entertaining, 40 – 31 match. Embedded in this blog is the game video (compliments of Seattle R.F.C. videographer). Sunny skies and shirtless fans...
All the Latest
Professional team mates. Ilnicki Inks Contract. CW’s Jake Ilnicki has become the third CW player to sign a contract with the fledgling, PRO Rugby League. Jake joins Hubert ‘The Moose’ Buydens and Phil MacKenzie with San Diego. Ray Barkwill has inked with Sacramento and will play in the...
Monday's Musings
CW adds our condolences to the Hadley family following the death of their son, Norm in Japan over the weekend. "Stormin Norman" will be fondly remembered by many players at CW as they played with him at OBHS. Norm was introduced to the game by Gary Johnston and he played for James Bay and...
Goliath Schools David
The above analogy is somewhat emblematic of Thursday night’s contest between Westshore and CW however, on this occasion, David did not have enough ammo! It was a case of the good big player getting the upper hand over the good little player, under the lights and in the showers on a chilly...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
March Madness - Rugby Style. Tomorrow night, kicking off at 6:30 at Velox's Westshore Velodrome, CW Women will pit current form against local, arch rivals, Westshore Valhallians. This will be CW women's first game vs their cross-town rivals, Westshore, since the Island final this past fall...
R.I.P. John Cannon
It is with sadness today that we offer condolences to the family of John Cannon. John passed away over the weekend after suffering a heart attack. A powerful inside centre, Cannon played for Canada at junior level (U17, U19 and U23), before making his senior debut aged 20, in 2001 vs. the USA...
Nine Try Extravaganza
S.B. Morris at his very best! It was a strange day at Windsor on Saturday. It started with some disconcerting news from Schwartz Bay, where one of a number of vehicles transporting SFU Women was rear-ended, resulting in a visit to the E.R. SFU had a “bare XV” and the other ladies were...
Triple Header @ Windsor
CW Women open the day @ 11:30 a.m. against visiting SFU. The Visitors do not have a stellar record however, the Hosts will be missing six women at the NSWT’s XV’s Camp and nothing is a “given” in our game. CW will be deservedly led by youngster, Laura Crow-Hutchon and Kara Galbraith, Stef...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
PRO Rugby in the U.S.A. Professional Rugby Union has come to North America. Businessman, Doug Schoninger is the CEO of the League. Schoninger, a 54-year-old former Wall Street bond trader, has been running Stadium Capital Financing Group for a couple years, since he bought them from...
Monday's Musings
LASTING MEMORIES Can you forget? The Captain’s super-human effort to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in “extra time”, 19 – 17 vs France in Bowl Final? ‘onya, Mooner! Nate’s conversion of this tally to seal the deal, take him to 51 points and the tourney’s #2 scorer? Same man’s...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
A Smorgasbord of News 1. The Temple.... will be open on Saturday, 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. for those unable to get to Vancouver for the HSBC Sevens. Visitors welcome. 2. Catching up.... with The Sage from Saturday last. As predicted, Dolesau and Gotegote would prove a handful. The Sage has seen...
Monday's Musings
Bouquets to Bayside. A long lost affinity with the Bayside club was re-established by CW Women on Saturday last. CW & Bayside had many a respected battles over the years with men’s rugby as well as age grade B.C. Finals and they always ended with mutual respect and comradery. This writer...
CW Abroad
HUGE shout out to Phil Mack playing in his 50TH IRB Sevens event in two hours’ time. Philly is also just 44 points shy of 1000, in all, quite the career. Thanks, Phil! Today we bring you a brief synopsis of CW players in action out of town. In so doing, we hope we have not missed any of a...