The Ontario Blues became the third winner of the three-year-old Canadian Rugby Championship with a solid, if unspectacular 15-0 win over their nemesis, the Prairie Wolfpack.

The Blues came into the game having never beaten the black and silver, losing by 1, 2 and 8 points respectively, and were forced to work for 80 minutes in a very stop-start affair.

The visitors began with 10 minutes of possession, but Ontarios first clean attack resulted in a try from winger Jordan Wilson Ross, 5-0 Blues after 15 minutes.

Despite numerous scoring opportunities from both teams, neither could cross for the rest of a physical yet disjointed first half.

In the second half, the Wolfpack came out with five minutes of pressure on the Blues line, but the Blues defence held firm and much of the remainder of the game was played in the Wolfpack 22. First, Ontario pressure earned a simple penalty for Steve Piatek to knock over, then multiple phases on the Prairie line allowed scrum half Kyle Armstrong to sneak home, Piatek converting.  Ontario ran their shutout streak to 158 minutes (having surrendered a try to Atlantic Rock in the second minute last week) and the Blues clinched their first CRC title. BC Bears won in 2009 and Atlantic Rock took the 2010 crown.

“All credit to the Prairies, who always give us lots of trouble,” said  Blues coach Rob Doyle, “we looked out of sorts in the first half and really never cracked it open. The second half was much better but this was certainly a very difficult win, as are all games at this level.”

The Blues will host the Atlantic Rock next week at Burlington, 430 pm kickoff. The Rock will certainly have lots to play for, as a bonus point win would leave them second to Ontario in the final standings and Rock v Blues is always a huge rivalry. Other games on next weeks’ card at Burlington include University of Buffalo women against Brock University women; University of Guelph men against McMaster; and Rock U20 taking on Niagara U20.

“it should be a great rugby day at Burlington next week” said Blues Manager Mark Winokur, “and we are looking forward to a tough challenge from the Rock. Our guys know the job is not done yet and we have to finish the competition on a positive note.”

USA Men's 7s team coach Al Caravelli now has some choices to make looking ahead to his international 7s season.

Coming up will be the Pan-Am Games October 29-30 in Guadalajara, Mexico. After that will be a nine-event IRB Sevens World Series. Caravelli wants to name a player pool from which he will draw players for these events. That pool, expected to be named in about a week, will give all the players the understanding that they need to be fit and ready to play throughout the season.

After this weekend's National All-Star Championships, Caravelli kept 20 players after school (in a good way) to scrimmage early Sunday morning. It would have been 21, but Maka Unufe picked up a slight injury and Caravelli opted to sit him out.

The players played two periods, one ten minutes, the second, a whopping 13, to see how some could handle the stress on their conditioning, and to give him time to slot in subs.

Blue Team
Pate Tuilevuka Pac Coast
Bubba Jones All Americans
Garrett Lambert All Americans
Curtis Chaffin West
Folau Niua Pac Coast
Apelu So'oalo Southern California
Justin Boyd Southern California

Subs:
Rocco Mauer in for Boyd
Mike Palefau in for Soalo
Will Holder in for Jones
Nu’u Punimata in for Lambert




Red Team
Miles Craigwell Pac Coast
Duncan Kelm All Americans
Lucas Thiem  Midwest
JP Eloff All Americans
Dom Wareing Northeast
Mile Pulu Pac Coast
Corey Council Southern California

Subs:
Garrett Bender in for Thiem
Andrew Durutalo in for Kelm
Don Pati in for Wareing, with Eloff moving to flyhalf


Several players showed well, and from this group Caravelli will start to put together a player pool and a list of 20 for the Pan-Am Games camp.

Some of the players on the list are in college, and so won’t necessarily be picked because they need to be in school. Caravelli is also looking to create a developmental squad – something RUGBYMag.com and Rugby Magazine has advocated.

That developmental team could participate one or two tournaments to give those players a leg up on international play. It will be a very young group.

Keep in mind also that several players weren't available for this NASC. Matt Hawkins, Zack Test, Peter Tiberio and Mark Bokhoven are dealing with injuries, not to mention Taylor Mokate and Can Dolan.  Shalom Suniula couldn't get released by his team in Brisbane. Nese Malifa, Blaine Scully, Roland Suniula, Paul Emerick, Colin Hawley and Tai Enosa are with the 15s World Cup team (and perhaps James Paterson as well?). So that's 13-14 players who might be expected to be in the pool.

The one player in the Sunday scrimmage who didn’t participate in the NASC is Andrew Durutalo. Durutalo’s parents are Fijian, but he was born in New York City while his parents were attending Columbia University. He has played in Japan, where he went to school, speaks four languages, and is now living in Seattle.

At 6-2, 240 he is big, and speedy, and is now being coached by Waisale Serevi.

So judging from the list of players plus the current 7s Eagles not at the NASC, Caravelli is looking at a pool of roughly 35. Of this group, he will cut it down to 25 or so for the IRB Season, and 20 for the next camp.