Rugby Canada Start Search for New High Performance Director
Rugby Canada are looking for a High Performance Director to replace Stephen Aboud who went back to Italy. Aboud wasn’t a good fit for Canada, he knew little about the Canadian rugby infrastructure and the key people across the country he needed to work with. It was a big learning curve and in the end he returned to Italy where he had some success. The job transition from a country like Ireland or Italy where there is a layer of professional rugby to a nation like Canada where rugby is strictly amateur does not usually end well for either party. That’s not even going into the shock they have going from a small country where everything is a drive away to the geographical vastness of the Canadian rugby landscape.
That’s why there’s some consternation about hiring an Executive Search company based in the UK to find the right person for Canadian rugby. EPP Global based out of Bath, UK has been hired to run the process to find the new High Performance Director. It was another UK based Executive Search firm, SRI Global Executive Search, that brought current CEO Nathan Bombrys to our shores. He was an American working in the UK at the time.
We’ll go into the Job Posting details in a bit but we’ll first look at the company doing the search. EPP, Elite Performance Partners, is run by David Sleman and Anna Edwards. Anna Edwards has worked with World Rugby recently delivering their Impact Beyond: Careers programme “working together with World Rugby, we are delivering the programme to over 100 amazing women working in rugby across 6 regions”. It would come as no surprise if World Rugby does have a say in choosing or recommending the Executive Search company that Rugby Canada employs. David Sleman played semi-pro rugby at Esher where he was captain, recently EPP was involved in selecting the Managing Director for the Newcastle Red Bulls. The person selected, Jonny Petrie, was from a Scotland rugby background. So will Canadian applicants get a fair look? It’s a lot easier when you’re based out of the UK and already working with euro-based World Rugby to give more attention to those candidates. Stephen Aboud and Nathan Bombrys are recent examples. We’ll see what happens, usually the Executive Search company provides a list of candidates, along with their recommendations, and then the CEO and Board will have the last say.
Speaking of the CEO’s role in this, the job posting mentions more than several times the close relationship the High Performance Director will have with the CEO. There are 6 mentions of CEO in the document indicating Bombrys will have a big impact on selection. It was his connection with Kingsley Jones that delayed the coach’s termination and almost scuppered the men’s XVs chances of getting to the RWC 2027. Hopefully the Board will have some backbone and make sure the right candidate is selected, not just someone from the CEO’s comfort circle of contacts.
- Rugby Canada is now looking for a High-Performance Director to work alongside CEO Nathan Bombrys in furthering the One Squad ethos and executing the vision set out in the strategic plan to bring further on-field success and rugby opportunity to Rugby Canada’s teams and players.
- Work in collaboration with the CEO to execute the Strategic Plan for Rugby Canada
- Build a close working relationship with the CEO based on mutual trust and respect
- Will be happy to work in close partnership with the CEO, aware of the knowledge they bring and accepting that there will be times when the CEO will lean into the high-performance space or speak directly with others about high-performance matters.
- Will be able to think strategically, complementing work done by the CEO in this space through an ability to turn strategy into action, planning and implementing ideas.
There is some hope though in the wording of the document, it likely had input from several sources and whoever put this requirement forward deserves some kudos, “Will bring a deep knowledge of rugby or elite sport in Canada, thereby helping to lessen the rugby knowledge gap in Canada or being the system architect for Rugby Canada.” We’ll circle back after the person is selected and see if this requirement was met. Also we’ll be interested to see if this asset is factored in, “Bilingual in English and French, considered an asset”.
https://rugby.ca/uploads/attachments/Job_Postings_2024/RC_HPD_Job_Posting_FINAL_EN.pdf