BUCCANEERS PRACTICE THIS THURSDAY, APRIL 16th, 6:30 – 8 PM

The Buccaneers will hold practice this Thursday, April 16 at Riverdale Park (off Broadview, just south of the Danforth), 6:30 – 8 pm. This will be our last tune up before the Burlington rugby tournament, so please come prepared for rugby drills, along with some contact scrimmaging.

INFO ON BURLINGTON RUGBY TOURNAMENT SATURDAY APRIL 18

The Buccaneers RFC have entered two teams into the A and B divisions of the Burlington rugby tournament. The A division will be for more experienced rugby players, while the B division will be for the newer members to the Bucs (to gauge your rugby ability), and those less experienced rugby players.

The tournament is being held at Dr Frank J Hayden Secondary School, 3040 Tim Dobbie Drive, Burlington. We will be meeting at the LEASIDE PUB (190 Laird Drive) to CARPOOL on Saturday morning 9 am, to leave at 9:15 am sharp! If you are not carpooling and getting there directly on your own, please be at the pitch by 10 am!

Lee Yarnton will be coaching the Bucs A team.

Richard Williams (who also coaches our junior teams) will be coaching the Bucs B team.

Our games are as follows (kick-off times noted):

A Division

11 am Buccaneers vs Burlington

2:30 pm Buccaneers vs Dragons

4:10 pm Buccaneers vs. Stoney Creek

B Division

11 am Buccaneers 2 vs Grimsby

2:30 pm Buccaneers 2 vs. Sudbury

4:10 pm Buccaneers 2 vs. Burlington 2

Each game in this tournament is 40 minutes long (half the length of a regular 80 minute rugby game) and divided into two 20 min halves. Substitutions can be made at any time during the game this tournament, so be sure to listen to your coach and be ready to play.

The Buccaneers will have a full time athletic trainer (Joanna Niles) at the tournament for the day to take care of any pregame taping, and any injuries that might occur during the tournament. If you pick up an injury or knock to your body, please let your coach & Joanna know.

1st team captain Gideon Haasbroek will be announcing an ‘A’ team selection, either Friday, or Saturday morning. Coach Richard Williams will select a ‘B’ team selection Saturday morning, and will be choosing a captain to lead the ‘B’ team for each game (the captain may change each game). As the tournament goes on, players may shift from between both Bucs teams.

We will be meeting to CARPOOL at the LEASIDE PUB on Saturday morning 9 am, to leave at 9:15 am sharp!

For those new to the club, or even to the sport of rugby, it is important to be at the rugby pitch 60 minutes before kick-off. Each team goes through the starting line-ups, the coach will review plans for the game, any taping with the trainer is done, and a warm up and light run through is done for each team.

Rugby players who were registered in the 2014 (junior or senior) season are covered for insurance until the end of April (and therefore this tournament). Those new to the Buccaneers RFC need to register before being eligible to play. You can register online now via our website, or, can register and pay in person on practice on Thursday.

To be ready to play, be sure to have your mouthguard, rugby shorts, and cleats (molded rubber soccer cleats – regular rugby boots are no good on the astro turf field the Burlington tournament is played on). Rugby jerseys for each team are provided by the club at the game. $10 will be collected from each Buccaneer participating in the tournament to cover the entrance fee and athletic trainer.

Lastly, please email Fraser Cook (co-Director of Senior Men’s Rugby) to let him know that you ARE, or ARE NOT available to play this weekend: ‘ cookfraser@gmail.com‘. In addition to this, a Teamer event for the Tournament has been created. For those new to the club we use a free online service called Teamer for all games in order to gauge who is available to play on any given week. New players should find an email invite from Teamer in order to create your free account, as well as a notification about the upcoming Tournament event. We ask that you update your availability as Yes or No as soon as possible, for both this Tournament and every other game event posted moving forward. It only takes a second, and you can even do it through your smartphone and/or text if you wish to enable that option. Please note the email(s) invite/event may be delivered to your spam/junk folder so check there if you have not received anything. If you are a new player and still have not received anything from Teamer please contact our Communications Director Jay McDonnell directly at webmaster@buccaneersrugby.com and let him know.

Look forward to seeing you all on Thursday to gear up for our big day on Saturday!