BC Players Impress at Rugby Canada Regional Camp

Top junior male players from across the province took part in an identification camp at Burnaby Lake hosted by Rugby Canada this weekend. This was the fourth and final camp being held in the country, with an aim to provide athletes with a performance pathway to National Programs in 2020.

The three-day camp comprised of a combination of fitness and skills assessments, intra-squad games and player-coach interviews. Around 40 players attended in total from the 60 invitees and the coaching staff were generally impressed with the overall performances that they saw. “This a definitely a positive weekend,” commented Aaron Takel, Men & Boys’ Rugby Development Manager at BC Rugby, “All of the players that showed up gave a great account of themselves and we hope that they now feel more informed about the different performance pathways available to them, whether that Provincial, University or National level.”

After completing a Bronco fitness assessment, with players largely posting scores above the national average for their positions, the camp moved on to skills and drills. These sessions focused on fundamental elements of the game including Catch & Pass, Tackle Technique, Breakdown Area and Post Tackle Work on the Ground. “Core handling and technique skills like these are so crucial to the game,” commented Takel. “You only have to look at some of the top-performing sides at the Rugby World Cup in Japan to see how vital things like ball handling, tackling and breakdown skills are. We want to get the same level of instinctive rugby literacy engrained in young players in this province. There are positives signs out there, but this is an area of the game that everyone can always improve in no matter what age or playing ability.”

During the camp, there were also presentations in the evening about University rugby opportunities by Adam Roberts, BC Rugby programs in 2020 by Takel and also from Jamie Cudmore about the Pride Academy. Every player had multiple one-to-one meetings with their assigned coaches and will have follow up meetings to go over actions points for the future. The camp wrapped up in thoroughly wet conditions on Sunday with an inter-squad game. All attending players participated in the fixture and impressed the observing coaches.

Many of the players who attended the session will be hopeful of having impressed enough for consideration of Rugby Canada’s upcoming Age-Grade programs. U18 players will be selected for a tour to San Diego in December and the U20’s will have a camp starting on January 3rd. All selections will be done by Rugby Canada staff and communicated by them.

The camp was attended by a large number of BC-based coaches and managers, both observing and providing some coaching/feedback to the players and BC Rugby would like to thank them for volunteering their time and experience.

Camp Attendees

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