Ontario Jr. Blues: Successful Hub Competition weekend in Kingston; Photo Credit to Jennifer Russell

(KINGSTON, ON) - This past weekend, the Rugby Ontario Hub Program Competitions took place at La Salle High School, where over 400 Ontario born rugby players took the field in an intense day of rugby training and competition. This weekend consisted of competitions for the following age groups: U15 Boys, U16 Boys & Girls, U17 Boys and U18 Boys & Girls.

Prior to the Hub Competition weekend in Kingston, players had the opportunity to demonstrate their on-field abilities at their respective Hub Tryout locations in June. There was a total of three Ontario Hub tryout locations:

• West Hub – Brantford Rugby Club (Brantford, ON)
• East Hub – Twin Elm Rugby Park (Ottawa, ON)
• Central Hub – Fletchers Fields (Markham, ON)

Leading up to the Hub Competition weekend on Sunday July 9, players that made it past their respective regional Hub location tryouts took part in two full day on-field training sessions. Led by the Rugby Ontario coaching staff, players used these training sessions as an opportunity to showcase their skills, athleticism and on-field abilities in hopes of being selected for the provincial squad.

Athletes taking part in the Hub Competition festivities were categorized by age and then divided into three separate teams based on geographical hub location. Once players were divided amongst the three hub teams – coaches assessed players in one final on-field training session before taking the field for inter hub exhibition games.

Each age group fielded a total of three teams – representing the East, West and Central hubs. As coaches watched eagerly, teams cycled through shortened scrimmage style games against one another in a clash to distinguish the final provincial roster. Prospective Jr. Blues players were able to gain exposure and impress the coaching staff for a final time before finding out whether or not they would be named to a Rugby Ontario Jr. Blues provincial roster.

A special thank you goes out to all the players, parents, coaches and volunteers that made the event possible.

The Jr. Blues rosters will be announced on Wednesday, July 12 on the Rugby Ontario website. All players will be informed whether or not they have been selected by Tuesday morning.

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 High Performance program. The program includes representative teams from Under-15 to Senior in both Women’s and Men’s Fifteens. 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/

WANT MORE INFORMATION?

Dylan Meredith
High Performance & Communications Intern - Rugby Ontario
647-560-4790 x 1012
dmeredith@rugbyontario.com

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