Ontario Blues Senior Men begin CRC season this Saturday

August 01, 2018

Ontario Blues Senior Men’s team ready to avenge last year’s second place finish as the 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship opens this Saturday

The Ontario Blues Senior Men’s team will be travelling to Montreal over the long weekend to take on the Atlantic Rock. The match will be the Ontario Blues’ Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) opener and they will look to come out of the gate strong against their eastern rivals.

The CRC opener will take place at Concordia University on Saturday August 4, 2018 and kickoff is set for 7:00pm ET. Rugby Quebec plans to live stream through their Facebook account.

The Blues and Rock have met each other in CRC action a total of 13 times. The Blues have won all but two of those matches including a 24-17 win in their 2017 meeting.

Senior Men’s CRC format for 2018 calls for a home-and-home between the Blues and the Rock, while the Western competitors – the BC Bears and Prairie Wolfpack – are also playing a home-and-home series. Prairie Wolfpack upset the defending champions in their series opener with a narrow 27-24 win on Friday.

The second match of the Blues’ home-and-home series will return to Burlington Centaurs Rugby Football Club (Sherwood Forest Park) in Burlington – the scene of the Blues’ monumental defeat of the Glendale Raptors in May of last year. The match will be taking place on Tuesday August 7, 2018 at 6:45pm ET and admission is $10 per person at the gate. The second match will be streamed live on Rugby Ontario’s YouTube, thanks to eThereLive.

The Blues have also named their 23-man squad ahead of the CRC opener. In total, 12 Rugby Ontario clubs are represented on the list.

For more information on the Ontario Blues Senior Men’s program, go to https://www.rugbyontario.com/blues-senior-men/.

Ontario Blues Senior Men’s Squad – 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship

Forwards

Andrew Quattrin, Aurora Barbarians

Djustice Sears-Duru, Crusaders

Emerson Prior, Peterborough Pagans

Eric Howard, Brantford Harlequins

Kolby Francis, Brantford Harlequins

Lucas Rumball, Balmy Beach

Marcello Wainwright, Toronto Scottish

Mike Sheppard, Stoney Creek Camels

Mo Yusuf, Peterborough Pagans

Paul Ciulini, Aurora Barbarians

Peter Milazzo, Toronto Scottish

Rob Brouwer, Lindsay RFC

Tom Van Horne, Brantford Harlequins

Backs

Andrew Ferguson, Crusaders

D’Shawn Bowen, Kingston Panthers

Jamie Leveridge, Crusaders

Jesse Lofthouse, Markham Irish

Kainoa Lloyd, Mississauga Blues

Kieron Martin, Hamilton Hornets

Kyle Lagasca, Guelph Redcoats

Mitch Richardson, Stoney Creek Camels

Riley Dinardo, Toronto Scottish

Shawn Windsor, Stoney Creek Camels

Coaching Staff

Head Coach-Chris Silverthorn

Assistant Coach-Cory Hector

Assistant Coach-Aaron Carpenter

Manager-Mark Winokur

Performance Analyst-Rodin Lozada

Ontario Blues Senior Men’s Canadian Rugby Championship Schedule

GAME 1: Blues vs. Atlantic Rock – August 4, 2018 – Concordia University, Montreal QC 7:00pm ET ($10 at gate)

GAME 2: Atlantic Rock vs. Blues – August 7, 2018 – Burlington ON 6:45pm ET ($10 at gate)

SEMI FINAL: August 23, 2018 – Calgary, AB (Calgary Rugby Park)

GOLD/BRONZE: August 26, 2018 – Calgary, AB (Calgary Rugby Park)

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/