Canada Rugby
Saturday's Doings - Where to Start?
Get your pipe and coffee for this diatribe! The weekend started with a ‘downer’. Sydney Sevens on day #1 and Canada drew a bagel. This outcome was particularly disappointing after an early brace of pretty good performances vs N.Z. and Australia, when the boys tanked in their day-end loss...
February 6th - A Fiesta of Footie.
Where to start? Downunder, due to time differential! Proximately 24 hours’ time, the Sydney Sevens will kick off. Sevens’ games can be viewed HERE. CW’s Yak (Nanyak Dala) and Fuli (Mike Fuailefau) have been added to the NSMT’s side for the Sydney event. This venue will play to a full...
Monday's Musings
Giving Back. A huge thanks to Doug Woolridge, Ray Barkwill and Hubert Buydens for donating jerseys earned after games in the 2015 RWC. Wooly's jersey was from Eddy Ben Arous from France, Bark's was from Ireland's Rory Best and Hubie's from Italy's, Lorenzo Cittadini. They have been mounted...
One Man's Opinion
Day #2 at Wellington. Canada (13th rank) vs Russia (14th). When the dust settled on this one, the difference between these teams was huge, with Canada winning, 35 – 12. Harry Jones was clearly M-o-M and bagged a hat-trick to boot. Others to show were; Cejvanovic, Hammond and Hirayama. ...
Sage Returns - Game Report
(This week’s game report sees a return of The Sage on the side.) Friday night at Westhills Stadium Turf Field….CW lads quickly found out that ‘’class was in session” vs U20 Canada…the exam day to test lessons learned will be coming next Saturday, same location Vs Capilano in the CDI Opener...
Talent Test - CW Vs NSMT U20
Thanks to DragonsEyeAnalysis for this utube video. (Video from U20 Camp @ SLS - Day #1) Game on. CW Vs Canada NSMT U20’s Friday Nite Lights, Westhills Stadium 7:00 p.m. k.o. Tomorrow’s game will be a good hit out for both groups. The U20’s under the whip of Jeff Williams and Ken...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
Official Club Photographer It takes numerous volunteers to keep a rugby club on the go. Ron Willems, our club photographer, was raised to the role of “official” when a local ref demanded his presence “outside the ropes”. We thought we would give Ron “official” status with his...
Seven's Selections
Friday last, Rugby Canada finally announced the NSMT’s 7’s selections for the upcoming Wellington and Sydney stops of the parade, virtually as the boys stepped on the plane. Good news for readers of this site was the inclusion of Luke McCloskey. Luke is a product of CW minis, age grade,...
Monday's Musings
"Rule changes will rob the game of its heroic qualities!" Website Video Feature. One of a number of new improvements on our new site is the video feature. This can be found by going under the “More” link on the menu bar or personal device “slug”. When you click on that, a drop down will...
Saturday is a Rugby Day
The “second half” opens this weekend when CW Women travel to Cowichan on Saturday. The last time these two teams met, a real contrast of styles, based on team strengths was on display. CW used their speed advantage to record the W. Since that match, Cowichan has chalked up a win...
Monday's Musings
M.M’s kicks off with a “hats off” to Doug Woolridge. This erstwhile member of the FRF has inked an interim agreement with Clermont Auvergne in the Top XIV League and the Euro Champions Cup. Dougie was one of Canada’s forwards who had a sterling RWC performance in this writer’s eyes,...
Coaching Conundrum from Club to Country
Since our last blog, NSMT’s coach, Kieran Crowley has handed in his ticket. Following a recent review, Crowley’s contract was extended for another two years with the NSMT. There has been much reported by rugby scribes across the country as well as rugby fans, in relation to the review and...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
The year in review to date has been quite successful for CW, with some outstanding Junior Boys results. Our U14’s won the B.C. title; U16’s placed third and U18’s also won the crown. Our U18 girls played in a 2nd successive BC final vs a strong Abby team only losing 22-5. Our newly...
2016 Kicks Off
And a Happy New Year to all ruggers and rugby fans, especially to the CW Family. CW is pleased to hear of deserved Season Honors for our own, Spencer Robinson who has been announced by Rugby Canada as the NSMT Maple Leafs Sevens coach for their upcoming tour of Argentina and Chile. ...
Monday's Musings
COMMUNITY SERVICE: Hats off to a group of CW volunteers that assisted with the Victoria Christmas Truck Parade and its tour through the Oak Bay village. That’s the CW way folk and a Merry Christmas to you. CW’s Dylan ‘Diesel’ Jones is once again having some major health issues and...
All's Not According to Hoyle
The NSMT finished day #2 at Dubai with a pair of wins to pull out the Shield title and earn three points, finishing in 13th place. The wins came over Portugal, 31 – 14 and a re-match victory over Japan, 19 – 17. Coach Middleton has stated that he did not think the boys played to their...
BARNARD CUP PREVIEW
A familiar scene from past games - surrounded by Vikes! CW heads to UVic for the second time this season and the third encounter with the undefeated Vikes, on Saturday. The Cup takes place at Wallace Field at 1:00 p.m. The Tricolours have announced their probable best available selection for...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
MAPLE LEAF WOMEN’S XV The women lost a tight game to England yesterday, 29 – 37. Canada led 17 – 15 at the half and pulled away to a 29 – 20 gap with not a lot of ticks on the clock. One could not tell from the Twitter feed what might have happened but the team allowed seventeen points in...
CW's FIRST FEMALE CAP
Head coach John Tait has named his squad for the opening round of the 2015-16 HSBC Women’s Sevens Series to be held in Dubai Dec. 3-4. Jen Kish will captain the team while Megan Lukan and Caroline Crossley will both make their Sevens Series debuts for Canada. “The team has been...
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul on Thursday!
Late with the blog...late with the reports! Very much after the fact, we bring you a report that CW U14 boys took a rather clinical "workshop" from a visiting Welsh team, Cyfarthfa High School, last Friday. From reports it seems rather challenging to fathom the age group parity but regardless,...
R-E-S-PE-C-T
Where else but rugby? This photo has been all-over but we show it, just in case you have not seen it. There are very few other sports where two opponents have given their all in a crucial game and one, SBW, can console his opposite number, Jesse Kriel, after the NZ defeat of RSA last...
Monday's Musings
U14 Boys: CW welcomed JBAA to the VIRU Junior league yesterday in their first (ever?) age grade U14 match. This is the Bays first attempt at this age level as far back as can be remembered and no doubt, in traditional James Bay fashion, will grow into a force to be reckoned with. It is great...
Monday's Musings
Gutted! RUGBY WORLD CUP REFLECTIONS Much of the sheen was rubbed off The Show this past weekend when Scotland was denied a heroic victory of epic proportions over the Wallabies. The issue of officiating, once again reared its ugly head but more of that later. Japan was the real highlight...
You Be The Judge
Has rugby become “over-officiated”? In days of yore it could be said that if a player “made as few errors as the ref”, he was doing okay. Then came the AR, miked to the ref; then the TMO and now, the Citing Commissioners, to reduce officiating errors to virtually nil, so much so, that even the...
RWC and 'The Minnows'
Well, after looking at point differentials in the RWC, one notes that over 13 games there was an average of 40.6 in differential spread. Announcers were regularly heard to applaud the IRB with the "narrowing of the gap" but really? Rumour of quality salaries for coaches in Tier 2 countries...