By Doug Crosse A former Scottish specialist coach has landed in Canada and carved out a career and a new life, all in pretty short order. For eight and a half years, Dave Butcher was the high-performance coach for Rugby Scotland, introducing best practices throughout the various age-grade programmes and academies. Then, in 2015, he decided the time to start a new chapter in his life had arrived, and he became the High-Performance Director for Rugby Ontario. With that role, he was able to move partner Lynn and their two children to Canada. His new position included coaching with Rugby...

 Written By: Mark Janzen Harry Jones kind of laughs when he recalls his first-ever sevens game. You would too if the first time you ever played in a sevens contest was against New Zealand, with your direct counterpart being the legendary Victor Vito; and when you ran onto the pitch, you did so in front of a packed house at the 2008 Wellington Sevens on the Sevens World Series. “It was crazy.” Jones was an 18-year-old rugby-playing student at UBC walking to anthropology class when he received a call from then Canadian sevens coach Shane Thompson. A little over a...

Written By: Karen Gasbarino-Knutt Photo Credit: World Rugby  18 teams have converged in Dubai for the premier of the 2017-2018 Rugby Sevens World Series Season. 12 Women’s and 16 Men’s teams have gathered for the series opener, beginning today. Note: with the time change, the women played all their pool matches overnight and won all three handily. Julia Greenshields proved a powerful adversary for opposing teams to deal with, and of course Ghislaine Landry was her usual play-making self.  The Sevens World Series has gained in momentum in recent years and is hotly sought after by countries to host. It’s a...