Written By: Chris Perotte Photo Credits: Leighton Chong It’s 2:40 pm on Sunday April 1, 2018. On Field One inside the Hangar at Downsview Park, two teams stand in a circle around referee Courtney Bishop, and head of Canada Touch Rugby Steve Shortly. The two teams are moments away from competing in the Grand Finale for the CTR Championship trophy. They are receiving the following instructions: “We are going to try to keep the pace fairly quick. So when you’re touched and you stop ahead of the ball that’s fine, just roll it back. If you don’t roll it back,...

Written By: Mark Janzen Kellen Gordon brought the sold-out crowd at Starfire Stadium to its feet, rumbling up the middle of the park with a first-half run that featured speed rarely seen from a prop, and physicality rarely seen by anyone beyond the front row. In a single moment in Seattle’s first-ever Major League Rugby match, the Seattle Seawolves loosehead prop, who hails from Kenmore, Washington and who played his college rugby at Central Washington University, Gordon showed up exactly as advertised on much of the team’s marketing paraphernalia – front and center. The prop-turned centre-turned sevens star-turned prop provided...

Written By: Karen Gasbarino-Knutt Karen Paquin is a marvel. She is the total package; brains and brawn, fearless and fast, a thinker and a doer. And one heck of a rugby player. Give Karen a code, 7s or 15s, and she will perform perfectly in either. But ask her where her heart lies, and she will tell you it’s the fact that there are several kinds of athletes required all in one team for 15s. There is unfinished business for Paquin. Don’t count her out just because she hasn't seen much action of late. She’s rehabbing an injury, but plans...