Canadian Rugby Championship 2010

[Shaggy]

Hi there ... as i'm new to Canada, and a mad rugby supporter, I decided i'd make an effort to find out a little bit about the competition, and maybe post some results ... anyway, it turns out that there are four teams in the Competition, that we are already had two rounds, and that two off the teams have win both there games and have acquired a bonus point, qualifying them for the final on the 18th September

The points table is as follows:

The Rock (Atlantic Seaboard ... based in Newfoundland I think) - 9 points
Prairie Wolf Pack (Plains region of Canada, based in Calgary, Alberta, and therefore my local team) - 9 points
Ontario Blues (from Ontario ... go figure) - 1 point
B.C.Bears (British Columbia, based in Vancouver ) - 0 points

This is apparently an upset because BC are the defending champions, and rugby strength has traditionally come from that province.

The final round takes place on 4th September with the The Wolf Pack taking on The Rock to see who qualifies in first place, and the BC Bears hosting the Ontario Blues in a fight for third place.

I'm predicting that the winners in this round will be the Prairie Wolf Pack (because i'm biased ), and the Ontario Blues, because they seem to have been more competitive against the undefeated teams

If you want to follow the good guys (the Wolf pack ... and they play in Black! ), heres a link to an article on their two previous games

http://www.americasrugbychampionshi...er.cfm?clientID=2581&leagueID=6921&page=46199

If you are interested in all of the teams, here's another link

http://www.americasrugbychampionshi...ID=6921&clientID=2581&seasonid=22629&link=ARC

If you follow a country that doesn't have threads up to show how well the teams are going, I encourage you put something up ... I freely admit that i'm not as globally aware as what I should be/would like to be ... and i'm sure i'm not the only one

 

[Feicarsinn]

Go Bears! Home of TRF's favourite scrum half and demi-god.

 

[Shaggy]

Go Bears! Home of TRF's favourite scrum half and demi-god.

Hey, you know that there's a whole forum dedicated to the great one ... now of you go ... get back there

LOL ... No, lucky for the good guys, Ed's playing in the UK ... that's probably why the bears aren't doing so well

 

[Sam Owen]

Go Bears! Home of TRF's favourite scrum half and demi-god.

More like the NH's best and favourite scrum half and demi-god.

 

[Feicarsinn]

More like the NH's best and favourite scrum half and demi-god.

Right, whatever you say mate.

 

[Sam Owen]

Right, whatever you say mate.

Yeah we've never seen him so yeah lol.
Is he as good as Du Preez?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yeah we've never seen him so yeah lol.
Is he as good as Du Preez?

The real question is:
Is Du Preez as good as fairhurst?

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

The real question is:
Is Du Preez as good as fairhurst?

And the real answer is no. Du Preez is about all Scrum-Halves. Fairhurst is above all men.

 

[rusty_lock]

Hey, you know that there's a whole forum dedicated to the great one ... now of you go ... get back there

LOL ... No, lucky for the good guys, Ed's playing in the UK ... that's probably why the bears aren't doing so well

Where is Ed playing in the UK. I try to follow all the Canadian boys playing overseas but hadn't heard that he was back in the UK.

He was very recently working as a broker in Vancouver with RBC Dominion Securities.

 

[Shaggy]

Where is Ed playing in the UK. I try to follow all the Canadian boys playing overseas but hadn't heard that he was back in the UK.

He was very recently working as a broker in Vancouver with RBC Dominion Securities.

I could be wrong - I thought he was with the Cornish Pirates, but my info could be dated ... please don't take anything I say a gospel regarding Canadian Rugby, as I say, i'm new to Canada, and i'm the first to admit, though i'm interested, I don't know as much as I would like to or should

EDIT - my bad, sorry ... my info is definitely out of date, he was released from the Cornish Pirates.

Which team do you follow in the CRC?

 

[rusty_lock]

I'm in BC shaggy. There are a whole host of reasons that BC is at the bottom of the table at the moment. None of which have anything to do with the quality of BC rugby. LOL However I doubt that the politics of the national union would be of much interest to this forum. Suffice to say it is good to see the Rock having success. They have worked hard, prepared well and it looks good on them.

Welcome to Canada. We might not play rugby as well as you are used to but we can drink better.

 

[Shaggy]

I'm in BC shaggy. There are a whole host of reasons that BC is at the bottom of the table at the moment. None of which have anything to do with the quality of BC rugby. LOL However I doubt that the politics of the national union would be of much interest to this forum. Suffice to say it is good to see the Rock having success. They have worked hard, prepared well and it looks good on them.

Welcome to Canada. We might not play rugby as well as you are used to but we can drink better.

Thanks Rusty, I guess Canada's like anywhere when it comes to Rugby the stronger all of the provincial sides are, the stronger the national sides are ... i'm certainly backing Canada as my second team at RWC, and I hope they beat all of their opponents (except the All Blacks of course)

... As for the drinking, it stands to reason that you'd e better at that ... the beer's much better over here ... I guess all I can do is continue to practice, and try to narrow the gap

 

[CDN_Rugby]

Based on the matches that have been played so far, does anyone have a prediction for the team that will be chosen to play as Canada "A" in the Americas Rugby Championship? Hopefully there is no politics involved in selection and everyone who is selected actually played in the competition...

 

[fcukernaut]

Oh we all know there's politics involved in everything, we might not be South Africa but we're not a whole lot better. It's not only the national selections that **** me off but even these provincial selections. A lot of the guys selected just suck to be fully honest with you. And I don't want to even get started about the selection for the junior level of rugby, especially in Ontario where there are huge distances to travel for practice. Needless to say the only players who make it to the higher levels are often the kids with the richest parents, not the best players. And while those players get ignored they chose to stop playing rugby and it's a damn shame. The future of rugby in Canada relies on getting the best players from Ontario playing in the provincial set up and thus the chance at the national set up to develop further, it's the only way we will get the playing numbers higher. I think we'll all find it curious that Ontario and BC play tight games (at the junior level) and for the most part they are 50/50 who wins and yet the national U16, 17, 18 and 20 are predominently BC based players. Such tight matches should suggest even talent and yet you see 70% BC players. On top of that it's just known that if you're a good player and you're serious about playing for Canada you need to move to BC.

To summarize I'm pretty disenfranchised with Canada rugby and our hopes for the future. Until we get rid of the imcompetent fools at the top and change our mindset from minnow to power we're going to remain an international afterthought.

EDIT: this post was rather off-topic-ish but I felt it's important. Although this competition helps to develop rugby it's only one step in long, long journey

 

[Shaggy]

Sorry guys ... i've been a bit slack in updating this thread with results - the results for the final round pre-finals on September 4th were:

The Rock 27 Prairie Wolf Pack 23

Ontario Blues 55 BC Bears 20

... Wow, the Bears got a bit of a spanking, and the final should be close between The Rock and The Wolf Pack on the 18th if this last result is any indication.

The Canadian A squad was also named to play against USA A, Argentina A, and Tonga A, in Argentina, at the ARC championship

Below is the related article (my apologies, this has made it a long post) ... I would be interested to know if any of the side selected are genuine chances of making the full Canada squad for RWC ... should be good to see how they go against the Tongan side, as the National teams are in the same pool at RWC

With an exciting Canadian final yet to come between the Prairie Wolf Pack and the Rock on September 18th in Newfoundland - Canadian team Coach Kieran Crowley on Wednesday named the squad that will travel to the Americas Rugby Championship as part of the pathway from the Canadian Rugby Championship competition to the men's national team.

The Canada Selects - made up primarily from players who suited up for the BC Bears, Prairie Wolf Pack, Ontario Blues and the Rock, travel to Cordoba, Argentina in October to play in the four team ARC championship.

Canada takes on the Argentina Jaguars on Tuesday October, 5th, followed by a Sunday afternoon contest against Tonga A on October 10th. The round robin event concludes with a match against the USA Selects on Friday October 15th.

Crowley, along with other selectors including Geraint John, have been to all the CRC games to scout potential talent to come on this tour - the second ARC championship. In 2009 it was BC and Ontario taking on the Jaguars and USA on finals day - but in 2010, these will all be sides selected from each nations domestic player pool.

Crowley says this Canada Select team went right down to the wire based on performances in the final weekend.

"A couple of players came through in the last weekend," he revealed. "It is a short tournament with three games so you are looking at them and picking right up to the end so some performances in the last weekend played a part in a couple of our selections."

With a huge amount of events taking place concurrently, it has been a challenge for selectors to balance off the needs of the individual competition, along with player availability and the reality of the domestic based player who must make huge sacrifices to wear his country's colours.

While the Canada Select squad is away in Argentina, Canada's Sevens team will be in Delhi, India, participating in the Commonwealth Games.

Couple that with an upcoming four country November tour to Europe and the available personnel list becomes somewhat taxed, but none the less quality sides for all tournaments needs have been selected.

"I think its great - certainly testing the depth of Canadian rugby with the Commonwealth Games, the ARC tournament and then a big tour to Europe in November," says Crowley. "It allows to get more players in the program and get them exposed to rugby at a higher level.

"Then they will be able to come back from those experiences and contribute to their regional teams and their club teams and improve their performances on those teams."

Since his arrival to helm Canada in 2008 Crowley, along with the High Performance department and with support from the International Rugby Board and the Rugby Canada board, have improved the domestic competition pathway, with the introduction of the CRC and ARC competitions. He says the next step is to get more games.

"As far as the structures in place in terms of the regions identifying their players - it has improved with players playing each other on a level playing field," admits the former All Black. "We are working to make it even better than it is in the current state and to do that we need to have more games between the top teams. Certainly what we are doing now is an improvement in terms of the level of competition and the ability to judge players against one another."

To see details on players and their statistics with the Canadian Rugby Championship visit www.canadianrugbychampionship.com - click on teams and player statistics. To see details of the Americas Rugby Championship team - visit www.americasrugbychampionship.com

Tournament Schedule

Tuesday - October 5th
USA vs Tonga A
Canada Select vs Argentina Jaguars

Sunday October 10th
Canada Select vs Tonga A
USA vs Argentina Jaguars

Friday October 15th
Canada Select vs USA
Tonga vs Argentina Jaguars

Team
Nick Blevins - Prairie Wolf Pack
Connor Braid - BC Bears
Brett Beukeboom - Ontario Blues
Hubert Buydens - Prairie Wolf Pack
Derek Daypuck - Ontario Blues
Brian Erichsen - BC Bears
Sean Ferguson - BC Bears
Scott Franklin - Prairie Wolf Pack
Mitch Gudgeon - BC Bears
Jeremy Kyne - Prairie Wolf Pack
Jamie Mackenzie - Ontario Blues
Mark MacSween - Ontario Blues
Jason Marshall - BC Bears
Stan McKeen - Oxford University
Shawn Mercier - BC Bears
Kevin Parfrey - The Rock
John Phelan - The Rock
Mike Pletch - Ontario Blues
Pat Riordan - BC Bears
Ryan Smith - Prairie Wolf Pack
Jebb Sinclair - The Rock
Ryan Tomlinson - Ontario Blues
Frank Walsh - The Rock
Sean White - BC Bears
Eric Wilson - BC Bears
Tyler Wish - The Rock

Coach: Kieran Crowley
Manager: Brent Johnston