Rugby Ontario announces Jr. Blues Competition Structure for 2018 season

(WHITBY, ON) - Rugby Ontario’s High Performance Department has announced an expanded structure for the 2018 Jr. Blues Fifteens season. This release includes program structures, as well as Talent Identification and Training Schedules for the upcoming season and Competition Outlines.

For the 2018 season, Rugby Ontario will be expanding the number of age-grade fifteens teams across Ontario in an attempt to increase its developing player talent pool. The younger age groups will work in REGIONAL based teams, while the older age groups will be working as full provincial team programs. 

Teams will be divided into “AAA” and “AA” streams, where they will compete at appropriate levels of competition. Each team will be composed of 24 players, three coaches and one manager. Within each age group structure, there will be a position-specific skill coach assigned, focusing on the skills of Half-Back Skill Development, Line-out Throwing and Kicking.

A full structure breakdown can be seen below. For more information on the Ontario Blues High Performance program, please go to www.rugbyontario.com/ontario-blues.

2018 PROGRAM STRUCTURE

Ontario Jr. Blues – Men’s Age-grade Program Structure

Ontario Jr. Blues – Women’s Age-grade Program Structure

2018 TALENT IDENTIFICATION & TRAINING STRUCTURE

Men's and Women's U15 and U16 Program (Locations TBC)

Men's and Women's U17 and U18 Program (Locations TBC)

Men’s U19 Program – Please refer to https://www.rugbyontario.com/blues-u19-men/ for updates on program talent identification and training dates.

Women’s U20 Program – Please refer to https://www.rugbyontario.com/blues-u20-women/ for updates on program talent identification and training dates.

2018 COMPETITION STRUCTURE

Below is a list of all upcoming competitions for our age-grade teams.

**All teams (“AA” & “AAA”) will be selected by the end of June.

Incoming Tour Games 

We have reached out to numerous tour operators in the United Kingdom and expressed our interest in hosting games in our non-competition windows during the months of June, July and August.

Canadian Rugby Championships - July 17^th – 22^nd 

• U19 Men AAA
• U20 Women AAA
• Senior Women

Cross Border Series: Presented by the University of Guelph - July 25^th - 28^th 

• U15 Men (Central/West) vs Eagle Impact Rugby Academy
• U16 Men AAA (Central/West) vs Eagle Impact Rugby Academy
• U17 Men AAA vs Eagle Impact Rugby Academy
• U18 Men AAA vs Eagle Impact Rugby Academy

Intra-Provincial Series: Presented by the University of Guelph - July 25^th - 28^th

• U16 Men + Women AA (Central/West/South West)
• U17 AA
• U18 Women AA
• U18 Women AAA

Ireland Tour-August 9^th to 19^th

• U16 Men AAA Central
• U16 Men AAA West
• U17 Men AAA
• U18 Men AAA
• U18 Women AAA

Eastern Canadian Championships Halifax-August 12^th to 19^th

• U15 Men (Central & West)
• U16 Men AA (West & Central)
• U16 Women AA (West & Central)
• U17 Men AA
• U18 Men AA
• U18 Women AA

ABOUT THE ONTARIO BLUES

The Ontario Blues program is the high performance representative program for male and female rugby players in Ontario. Rugby Ontario is represented at the provincial level by the Ontario Blues. The program includes representative teams from Under-15 to Senior in both Women’s and Men’s Fifteens and Under-18 Men's and Women's Sevens. Specifically, the program is designed to develop and showcase rugby players for Canadian representative national teams.

ABOUT RUGBY ONTARIO

Rugby Ontario is the provincial sports governing body responsible for the organization of rugby in Ontario. Our mission is to establish a stronger identity for rugby in Ontario by promoting the sport’s core values and by fostering a culture of inclusiveness and excellence on and off the field of play.

To learn more, visit https://www.rugbyontario.com/

WANT MORE INFORMATION?

Please contact:

Paul Connelly

High Performance Manager

pconnelly@rugbyontario.com

or

Sean Medeiros

High Performance Coordinator

smedeiros@rugbyontario.com

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