Rugby Canada’s veteran lock: Tyson Beukeboom

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Tyson Beukeboom at the Pacific Four Series on July 14, 2023

Tyson Beukeboom, a 6’0″ veteran lock for the Canadian team, is on the roster for the upcoming WXV 1 games. They are in the same group as New Zealand, Australia, England, France, and Wales. Canada will only play England, France and Wales in the competition, with the winner being determined by the team at the top of the table at the end of the group stage competition.

Tyson Beukeboom: The well-experience veteran lock Canada player

Childhood

Tyson Beukeboom is the daughter of former NHL player, Jeff Beukeboom. Tyson was born in the fifth season of Jeff’s time with the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton, Alberta on March 10, 2023. Jeff won four Stanley Cups and played for the New York Rangers and the Oilers.

Beukeboom was brought up in a family that loved sports. She has two cousins, Matt and Brett, who also play rugby, as well as her other two cousins, who are part of the national women’s water polo team. Not to mention that her mother was a track athlete, and her brother plays hockey. This is what she said about playing in such a family (source: Rugby Canada):

“It was pretty cool being in a sporting family,” Tyson said. “It was probably different than what people think. I think people think our parents were saying that we needed to be athletes, but it was very much the opposite. They wanted us to have fun, be happy and do what we love.”

In reality, Beukeboom was going to focus on hockey and take a backseat on playing rugby union. This is how Beukeboom though decided to play for the red and white in rugby union (source: Rugby Canada):

“I made it to the second cut for both teams,” she explained. “At that point, I hadn’t fully latched onto rugby as I had hockey. I decided I would focus on hockey and take a step back from rugby. I called the U17 Ontario coach and told him what I was doing and he said ‘you can’t do that. You can’t not play rugby. You have the potential to play for Canada one day. Don’t quit rugby’.”

St. Francis Xavier University (2009-13)

Beukeboom made her mark with the St. Francis Xavier University. She won the CIS tournament MVP back in 2013 for her university as she led her team to the gold medal. According to StFX, this is what Rugby Canada player, Beukeboom, said about going to this university:

“When I was picking schools I always wanted to come out East and I was looking at a few schools, but none of them had all three of hockey, rugby and Human Kinetics. Then I heard of a few girls that I played with on Rugby Ontario who going to StFX and I looked into it and contacted Mike [Cavanagh] and Ticker [Synishin] and they were both interested. So I came out on a recruiting trip and within seeing the campus I knew I was going to be going to school here.”

READ MORE: Sophie de Goede: Player profile of Rugby Canada’s captain

She also recently joined the Ealing Trailfinders, which plays in the Premiership Women’s Rugby. Beukeboom gave her reasons for signing with the club (Martyn Thomas of RugbyPass):

“If I don’t go play pro somewhere, I’m going to be left behind.”

This is obviously something these Canadian players feel, especially with no professional women’s rugby union club competition in Canada. To compete with the big three, who are England, New Zealand, and France, it is required for nations like Canada to have players play in a professional environment.

Tyson Beukeboom career with Rugby Canada women’s team (2013-Present)

Beukeboom made than 60 appearances for her country. She made her debut in the 2013 Nations Cup, where Canada would end up winning as they beat England 27-13 at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado.

Heading into that 2014 Rugby Women’s World Cup, Beukeboom talked about feeling confident heading into that World Cup with the intention of trying to win it. Canada would finish second in that tournament after losing to England 21-9 in that World Cup (source: Brad Kelly of the Durham Region):

“We’ve always believed in ourselves. It was more the outside people that weren’t as convinced that we would be able to do it. We used that energy to propel us through the tournament.”

Beukeboom had some memorable games wearing the Canadian shirt. This included scoring a hat-trick in Canada’s game against Australia at TD Place Stadium (source: Lisa Wallace of CBC):

“I mean, they were all team tries,” said a humble Beukeboom. “It was just so exciting to be out there, to be honest, whether I score three tries or not. It’s just such an honour to be able to wear the jersey once, let alone 60 times.”

She also had some other big games for the national team, including scoring a try in that tight loss to the Red Roses from England in the 2021 Rugby World Cup.

Games coming up for Rugby Canada

READ MORE: Rugby Canada’s reliable hooker: Emily Tuttosi

The Rugby Canadian team will be heading to play Wales to start of their WXV 1 competition on October 20 at 11:00 PM ET. The venue will be at Wellington Regional Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand. The WXV Website reveals that the game will be shown live on TSN.

 

Photo Credit: Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photography of Rugby Canada on July 14, 2023.

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