Sevens
School Rugby Takes Over
It is the time of season when the rugby focus reverts to our youth. Friday 13th will see the 44TH Annual GVSD Mini Rugby Jamboree. Over the years, this tournament has produced players who have continued to the highest echelons, most notable being Gareth Rees and more recently, Caroline...
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...
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
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...