Ray Barkwill

Ray Barkwill
Date of birth (1980-08-26) August 26, 1980
Place of birth Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Height 178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 101 kg (223 lb)[1]
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position Hooker
Professional / senior clubs
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2012–
2016–		 Ontario Blues
Sacramento		 34
2		 (40)
(5)
correct as of 17 April 2016.
Provincial/State sides
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2009–10
2010–12		 UWA
Western Australia		 36
12		 (45)
(10)
correct as of 29 August 2015.
Super Rugby
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2012 Western Force 8 (0)
correct as of 15 April 2016.
National team(s)
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2012– Canada 30 (10)
correct as of 5 March 2016.

Raymond "Ray" Barkwill (born 26 August 1980) is a Canadian rugby union player who currently plays for the Sacramento in PRO Rugby and the Canada national rugby union team.[2][3]

Born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Barkwill began playing his rugby at Westlane Secondary School along with Niagara Wasp RFC. He went on to play for the Niagara Thunder while being educated at Brock University in St. Catharines. In 2007 he captained Brock University team to its first OUA Rugby Championship while being named OUA Finals MVP. Barkwill graduated from Brock University with a BSc. Physical Geography, at this time he continued his post graduate studies at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. He then joined the University of Western Australia's Rugby Club in June and was then selected to the Western Australians Perth Spirit at the end of September of that season for their tour to Adelaide, South Australia.

2011

At this time Barkwill continued to play the season with UWA where they won the Grand Finals of the PINDAN Premier Grade against rivals Nedland, where Ray was voted on as Best and Fairest at this time for UWA. Shortly after the finals Ray was invited again to join the Western Australian State side (Perth Spirit). In late 2011 Barkwill was selected to train with the Super 15 side Western Force "A" for the upcoming 2012 season. At this time he caught the eye of Canadian national coach Kieran Crowley.[4][5]

2012

In January Barkwill made his first selection for the Force "A" side while continuing to play for the Perth Spirit side. In March Ray join the Ontario Blues on there tour of South America versus Argentinean province Salta and National sides Chile and Uruguay. On this tour is where Ray was given the nickname " La Flama Blanca " by the Argentinean crowd in attendance. Concluding this tour Barkwill was informed about joining the Ontario Blues team for the 2012 Canadian Rugby Championship season back in Canada. The Ontario Blues went on to win their second consecutive CRC championship in September. Barkwill was then selected to represent Canada "A" at the Americas Rugby Championship held in Langford, British Columbia.[6][7] After the ARC concluding in October, Barkwill was then selected for Canada's Autumn tour to the UK, versus Samoa, Russia and New Zealand Māori. On November 9, 2012 He started for Canada in his first cap vs Samoa in Colwyn Bay, Wales where they lost 42-12.[8]

2015

Ray was selected for the Canadians team for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, which was held in England. Ray started the first two games vs Ireland and Italy while coming off the bench for the France match. He is recognized by his big beard along with fellow teammate Hubert Buydens making news during the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

2016

In March of 2016 Ray announced that he had signed with Sacramento of PRO Rugby in its inaugural season.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, May 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.