Canada Rugby
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
Unsung Hero - On the Field Clayton ‘Burger’ Thornber has been a tricolour since his days as an age grade player, passing through the levels, playing with a B.C.H.S. Champs team at Shawnigan, on to UVic and full circle, with some CRC competition thrown in, back to CW. During this time he moved...
Monday's Musings
Canada Men’s Sevens Team has gone five and out for the second straight tourney. To boot, Nate Hirayama has succumbed to injury. Canada can only think as far ahead as the upcoming London Sevens and must not get entwined with the Road to Rio process. We wish the men well, as gargantuan...
Rugby Ramblings
Team mates at club; arch rivals at school; friends for life! Howard Russell Cup. Congratulations to SMUS on their comprehensive 25 – 0 victory over the Oak Bay Barbs on Thursday. In the early going, the teams tested each other with physicality and unfortunately, for Oak Bay, by game’s end they...
Wednesday's Ruck and Maul on Thursday!
CW SEARCHES FOR NEW PREMIERSHIP HEAD COACH & TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Today’s news brings a huge note of thanks to Lee Lindwall and Ian Hyde-Lay, senior men’s premiership head coaches of the 2015-16 season. Neither is available at this stage to continue the task of coaching the club’s senior...
Monday's Musings
CW joins Newport in Saluting Rod “The Cod” Snow Rod Snow was honoured by Newport on the weekend, being placed in the Newport RFC Hall of Fame. “Codfish” Snow made 190 appearances for Newport over a decade long span. He’d go on to make forty appearances for the Newport Gwent Dragons after...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
Vegas Sevens – NSMT The Burners are back! Duke and Douglas are healthy and one can add them to the mercurial cadre of play-makers; Hirayama, Mack and Jones; the athleticism and pace of a healthy Trainor, Fuli, Hammond and Kay, the “peaking” of White; and round it out with the big men,...
Monday's Musings
Unfortunately, this occured on eight occasions in Rosario on the weekend! Bienvenido, lo que es un abismo! Yes, chasm rather than a mere gap. Canada NSMT suffered a rather embarrassing 54 – 21 loss to Argentina on the weekend. Just what level of representative player it was representing...
Women Wonders
Kish's try, right from the top drawer! Doff of The Ruggernut's cap to Canada NSWT Sevens, Runners-Up @ Brazil and they moved into second place, tied with N.Z. after two rounds of IRB play. The Aussies must have realised they got a "get out of jail" card in pool play against Canada. No...
Saturday's Summary
NSMT's ARC VICTORY Most readers were either present amongst a healthy 1800 fans or have read reports elsewhere of Canada`s 52 -25 win over Brazil, in their first ever test yesterday. Hats off to Raymondo and the boys – well led and a 10é10 for the tally dive! There was lots of "good" but...
Day #1 in Brazil
Canada put aside lesser ranked, Ireland and Fiji early but hit a road block against #1 ranked, Australia. Two early errors got the Aussies on the board but Captain Kish responded and Russell added one at the half for a 14-10 lead. Both players carted Australian defenders over the line with...
CANADA NSMT VS BRAZIL - SATURDAY
Interim Senior Men’s Head Coach Francois Ratier has made five changes for Saturday’s Americas Rugby Championship clash with Brazil at Westhills Stadium. CW's, Ray Barkwill has been given the captaincy, deservedly so in our book. Loose head prop, CW’s Djustice Sears-Duru will get his first start...
Game Report - A Glum Day at Windsor
Glum in the skies, on the pitch and on the scoreboard. On Saturday, James Bay schooled their hosts in two games laying down over half a century of points to a bagel by the hosts, far too courteous a visit! The Ones played with an improved effort but on the day had trouble both winning and...
Saturday's Preview
Women’s Premier. CW Women travel to Burnaby Mt. to take on SFU. Although the teams are “miles apart” on the table – CW one point out of first place and Simon Fraser winless in the cellar, this is not one for the ladies to take lightly. CW has not shown any resilience in travel, losing both...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
CW’s Mike Fuli and Luke McClosky, all smiles after a stellar Sunday in Sydney! Fun Facts! On the same day there was much ado about eight on the pitch in the N.Z./Australia Final. As the screen shot shows, eight on the pitch as the Kiwis managed to tie it up in “dead time” and go on to win 27...