Notes from the North

It’s been another busy week on the news front for Canadian rugby fans, and with the first annual National Rugby Conference wrapping up over the weekend there’s plenty to talk about, both on the playing side of things and business end. Most importantly the Americas Rugby Championship kicks off on Saturday (!) and you can expect to see complete coverage from ARN, including previews of all six teams ahead of the weekend. Now grab some coffee and we’ll summarise some of the goings on.

WOMEN GET TWICKENHAM TEST
The senior women are putting their 2017 World Cup preparations in high gear, and they have just received the green light from World Rugby to play their November 26 test against England at the national stadium in Twickenham. England men play Argentina there on the same day, and there’s no word yet whether Canada’s game will come before or after the men’s test. Either way, there should be a decent crowd to watch the rematch of the 2014 World Cup final.

ARC STAFF CONFIRMED
We knew about Cudmore already, and now we have final confirmation on the rest of the coaching staff for the Americas Rugby Championship. There are no surprises as Francois Ratier gets help from familiar faces in Graeme Moffat, Chris Silverthorn, and Mike Shelley. With 18 new caps arriving in camp this past Sunday, these gentlemen have their work cut out for them.

OLMSTEAD HEADS TO LONDON
BC Rugby News had the heads-up on Evan Olmstead’s move to London Scottish, and we had confirmation very shortly afterwards that the big second row is the latest Canadian to join the pro ranks. He’ll be there until the end of the season at least. It’s great news for Olmstead, not so much for the ARC squad who loses their no1 lock in a position already very thin in experience. Back row Kyle Gilmour has been recalled from Rotherham as a replacement. Second row cover will come from Callum Morrison, Liam Chisholm, Paul Ciulini, and Kyle Baillie.

CANADIANS IN B&I CUP FINALS
A number of Canadian eligible players will be engaged in British & Irish Cup quarter-final duty on the March 11-12 weekend. Players at London Welsh, Moseley, Bedford, Doncaster, and the Cornish Pirates are gunning for a Cup final, with some interesting head-to-heads along the way.

NO DEBUT YET FOR WOOLDRIDGE
Meanwhile Doug Wooldridge dressed for Clermont against Montpellier, but bizarrely did not see the field so his debut will have to wait another week. Why exactly a club would pay good money to have a prop sit on the bench, especially in a game they were losing, is a good question. Perhaps Mr. Cudmore’s criticism of the coaching staff has some merit after all.

ENGLAND COUNTIES TOUR CONFIRMED
As previously mentioned, England Counties will be undergoing a three-match tour of Canada in June. They’ll play BC Bears in Vancouver on June 3, the Wolf Pack in Calgary on June 7, and the Ontario Blues in Toronto on June 11. Counties last showed up on these shores in 2010, when the Blues very nearly pulled off a win, eventually losing 32-36. The team is a select side made up of players from England’s second tier of professional rugby, the Greene King IPA Championship.

NATIONAL RUGBY CONFERENCE A SUCCESS
By all accounts the inaugural National Rugby Conference in Mississauga, Ontario, was a success. Over 300 were in attendance to watch a long list of names such as Wallabies coach Michael Cheika and Highlanders CEO Roger Clark speak. Reviews from attendees have been positive, noting that the overall theme was one of a change in culture in coaching and attitude, encouraging a return to a family-oriented approach even at high performance levels to improve team unity.

Criticism, meanwhile, has come on two fronts. One that didn’t directly involve the Conference was that Rugby Canada was not doing enough to support women’s rugby, particularly the national senior women’s team. This seems to have been taken on board by the management, but it remains to be seen how quickly they can end the pay-to-play fiasco for our World Cup semi-finalists.

The only negative evolving from the weekend itself is one of accessibility. While the decision to hold the Conference in Ontario has been well received, there are inevitably logistical issues in such a vast country with people who were keen to attend but simply could not, either due to cost or simply timing. A number have people have suggested that the event should have been streamed, perhaps using a pay-per-view model to allow all members of Canadian rugby a chance to be engaged while still generating revenue to pay for the speakers. Some have noted that the ability to engage and network with keynote presenters in person is enticement enough to attend if possible.

PLAYSMART CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
Rugby Canada is putting their full weight behind a new campaign to educate everyone involved in the game on player welfare, with a focus on concussion. Jamie Cudmore is featured in the promotional video.

DIXON & REES CROSS-COUNTRY JAMBOREE
Two of Rugby Canada’s top men have taken unprecedented strides to reach out to the rugby community in person over the past week. General Manager Jim Dixon and Performance Management Director Gareth Rees (that title may be slightly inaccurate as it’s a newly created position that Rees himself was unsure about) took to the road to undertake an arduous cross-country tour starting on January 26 in Calgary and ending today in St. John’s for a series of ‘Town Hall’ meetings open to the Canadian rugby public.

While the timing and locations have proved difficult for some to attend, again the reception has been positive from those who have. To their credit, both Dixon and Rees provided candid answers to questions on a wide array of topics, some of which we’ll go over below. The new title for Rees replaces the old ‘National Program Manager’ role, essentially creating a high level manager to oversee all national team managers, with most of the actual logistics being delegated out to respectively assigned individuals.

JUNE OPPONENTS SET
Italy has long been known to be one of the opponents scheduled for the June test series. The others have now been confirmed to be Japan and Russia. Tentative dates are Japan in Vancouver on June 11, Russia in Calgary on June 18, and Italy in Toronto on June 26. Venus are still to be confirmed, though BMO Field is a certainty for the Italian test.

PACIFIC TOURNAMENT BACK ON TABLE
Canada won’t be participating in the Pacific Nations Cup this year, if it happens at all, but World Rugby is currently in talks to create a Pacific competition to take place in September-October. An ‘A’ side tour of Ireland originally proposed for August appears to be on the shelf, with the new Pacific tournament set to take its place. As it was in Fiji last year, it will be ‘A’ level internationals with the domestic sides from Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa taking part and possibly the USA and Japan, though nothing has been confirmed as of yet. It would certainly provide Canada’s domestic players with the opportunity to get meaningful competition in before the November test series.

NEW COACH(es) TO ARRIVE IN MAY
…it’s hoped anyway. The applications are in for the permanent Head Coach position with a short list to be drawn up next week and interviews to begin immediately after. Rugby Canada are after ‘the best professional coach we can afford’, which almost assuredly rules out any Canadians for the top spot. They have revealed that a permanent ‘Canadian pathway’ coach will also be added as an assistant, though potential candidates are very much dependent on the strengths of the incoming head coach. May 1 is the target date to have the new team in place, well ahead of the June tests. There is no word as of yet who any potential front runners might be.

Further staff will be added ‘as required’, essentially on a contract basis for June and November test windows. They have also noted that World Rugby will be supporting them by making various specialist consultants available, one of whom is Strength & Conditioning guru Craig White who will be joining the team in June.

UNDER ARMOUR COMBINE IN WORKS
Canadian fans might remember a video of former High Performance Director Stuart Lancaster (a position that is still vacant since his departure more than a year ago) in attendance at a CFL combine, or perhaps have seen the recent promo shots by PRO Rugby of the same sort of thing. A combine supported by sponsors Under Armour is currently in the works to search for potential cross-over athletes currently residing outside the known rugby-verse. That might rankle some traditionals, but if a Carlin Isles is unearthed in the process that has to be a positive.

THE KEG SIGNS UP FOR SPONSORSHIP
Canadian steakhouse The Keg is the latest sponsor set to be unveiled. They have reportedly ponied up a significant amount of cash – in the six figures – to help offset the considerable expenses that will be incurred this year, particularly at Vancouver’s World Sevens event. There is no word yet on whether Hubert Buydens and Ray Barkwill will get preferred seating at their establishments.

CENTRALIZED PLAYERS PLANNED FOR SEPTEMBER
Putting together a centralized team of athletes is on the priority list at the moment, and despite Kieran Crowley’s opinion that it might not be forthcoming, Rugby Canada are adamant that they will be able to implement the plan this September. The players will be located at the High Performance Centre in Langford and on top of expenses will be given the same monthly stipend as Canada’s sevens players, currently $1500 per month. The recent decision of some players to withdraw from international consideration can surely be in-part attributed to the lack of funding available, with financial security difficult to achieve even for those who pick up part-time employment beyond their national funding.

As for where exactly the money is coming from, the centralized program will be funded largely from a World Rugby grant specifically geared towards the senior men’s national team. The plan is to recruit 20 players on top of the 20 already under the sevens carding system, to give us a total of 40 centralized athletes in Langford.

7s PLAYERS WILL STILL PLAY XVs
While separation of the two sides to an extent will still take place, it appears XVs will be given priority at the conclusion of the Olympics. That means specialists like Nathan Hirayama are likely to stick with 7s, but young players like Matt Mullins will be primarily seen as XVs players, playing 7s only when it’s in their best interests. The rationale is that individuals can progress as rugby players by playing both versions of the game, but the situation that occurred at the World Cup where both flyhalves had barely a handful of XVs games between them over the course of two years won’t happen again.

The goal for 2019 is a ‘sustainable top-12 ranking’, with a high-bar aim of making the World Cup quarter-finals. Given that Canada currently sit in 19th and could well drop to 20th if they lose to Uruguay this weekend, both seem rather ambitious. While there are certainly some promising youngsters coming through the ranks, perhaps 2023 is a more realistic time frame.

PRO RUGBY UPDATE
It was reiterated that Rugby Canada remains interested in PRO Rugby, and Dixon will be headed south to San Diego in March to visit with CEO Doug Schoninger and get a closer look at the franchise. That said they have reservations about the operation – understandable given the dearth of concrete information released up until now – and are keeping their options open.

Dixon confirmed he is in talks with a ‘Southern Hemisphere competition’ with an eye towards a potential Super Rugby franchise in the future, but that should PRO Rugby prove a viable option they would absolutely be interested. He also confirmed that they suggested the existing CRC franchises be included, under the provisions that Rugby Canada had some input into the coaching staff and playing roster. All we can do for the time being is sit and watch what unfolds south of the 49th.