Atlantic Privateers Open Letter on National Men’s Competition

Dr. John Gillis Puts Forth Atlantic Privateers Vision for National Men’s Competition

I received this open letter to the rugby community from Dr. John Gillis on his and the Atlantic Privateers vision for a national men’s competition. It’s listed below and I’ve added an Editor’s comments below that with some of my views.

Dear Canadian Rugby Friends:

I am writing this letter on behalf of the Atlantic Privateers Rugby Club. We founded this club as the Atlantic Selects in 2021 to assist the Toronto Arrows in their return to Toronto when they needed a good home game. This fantastic experience has led to the growth of our organization as a high-performance representative and developmental team from Atlantic Canada. Coached by Jack Hanratty, Jamie Cudmore, and David Jackson (Current Head Coach), we have played in Boston (Freejacks Academy), Toronto (Arrows Academy), and Montreal (Montreal 1862), and set up and hosted the Coast-to-Coast Cup in 2022, 2023, and 2024 (Canada West Selects/BC Bears, Arrows Academy, Calgary Mavericks, Prairie Fire). More than 10 Players who have come through this tournament have since featured on our National Senior Men’s Team. Today, we look to the future of a high-performance developmental pathway in Canadian Senior Men’s Rugby.

We wish to give our players, and players across the country the opportunity to get better coaching, strength and conditioning, and play higher level games. These goals will help them continue to rise in rugby toward the professional ranks and most importantly to aspire to and support our National Senior Men’s team toward greater success and to qualify for the next World Cup. There has been much change and some uncertainty as to what lies ahead for Canadian Senior Men’s Rugby. As an established program, we seek to collaborate with our willing partners across the country, but also to lead a discussion on the best pathway and framework with which to proceed.

Thus, we seek to formalize in 2025 a National Senior Men’s Competition which would expand and progress in the years to follow.

Proposal: Create a six team National high performance senior men’s competition, with a 3 team Eastern and a 3 team Western Division. Teams in each conference would play each other home and away. A playoff system would then occur between the divisions (to be determined). This is discussed in more detail below.

Background

As stated in prior correspondence to Rugby Canada, the Canadian Rugby Foundation, and our Provincial and Regional partners, we believe that any National competition on a go forward should:

1. Focus on the spring April to June window avoiding club and university seasons to maximize player availability.
2. Focus on u23 Canadian qualified players who have the potential to advance to higher levels in rugby, with exceptions for certain positions, late bloomers, and other variations as agreed by the participants.
3. Look to progress in terms of coaching, strength and conditioning, video analysis, and general professionalism towards a competition which might be considered semi-professional in moving away from a pay to play model and allowing optimal access to all qualified players.
4. Maintain a focus on quality of product and presentation to allow development and maintenance of a fan base which will generate and maintain local interest and allow some financial contribution to the operation of each team/program.
5. Have a regional focus with liaison with clubs and PSO/Provincial/interbranch teams to provide formalized and dedicated player identification pathways, while supporting play at the club and Provincial/interbranch level to enhance this identification and add valuable training and game time.
6. Confirm that in each region and with each potential team, that there is a critical mass of qualified domestic players, and the accompanying financial and logistical support, to set and maintain a standard of play and organization equal to past competitions, with a goal of constantly raising the level.

As we look ahead, the Privateers wish to first formalize a competition within the Eastern half of the country with teams with whom we have an established competition history. Experience with past fixtures with these teams has already demonstrated for us a strong standard of play, and a sustainable model for required personnel, organization, travel logistics, and associated costs involved. We thus propose to play a home and away series with Ontario and Quebec, giving each team 4 “regular season” games.

We would like to see the Western part of the country mirror this arrangement, but our position is that teams and leaders in the West must lead the way in making this happen in their own region.

If the West is not able to participate, we would hold a finals weekend where 2 east would play 3 east on a Thursday likely in June, and the winner would play 1 east on Sunday for the championship of this division/competition.

If the West is able to mirror/participate, each conference could complete playoffs leading into a final between division winners, or a grand finals day could occur where 3 West plays 3 east, 2 plays 2 and 1 plays 1. Obviously, there are different ways to do this, and the participants as agreed would get together and hammer out the details on format, timing, and location. This arrangement would offer the rebirth of a true, formal, National Senior Men’s Competition.

What’s next? All of this costs money. We are ready to go in the East and prepared to demonstrate a clear funding framework to Ontario and Quebec. We are ready to help our other friends and partners across the country.

We have extensive experience in costing travel from the West and Central Canada to Halifax for the Coast-to-Coast Cup and keeping costs very low. This involves planning, early booking, experience with air and bus logistics, and selecting sites like university dorms which have a lower cost profile.

This involves seeking funding from relevant sources.

The Canadian Rugby Foundation has supported our efforts in the past and has committed to renewed and increased funding in 2025 with the right plan and format in place.

Government will help. The Coast-to-Coast Cup received significant funding from the Government of Nova Scotia to defray the cost of the tournament and specifically of the teams attending. This is again available and may be available elsewhere with advanced planning.

Corporate assistance. The Selects/Privateers have been successful in building a base of corporate support to fund our operations and the tournament and this continues to grow. I believe that with the right planning and early reach out, this can be replicated across the country.

The Rugby Community. People want to help. But they want to see a detailed and organized plan that has goals and deliverables and will make a difference. If we build this together, people will step in and help the competition or their regional team. Inaction is our enemy in this regard.

What about the rest of the pathway?

Club rugby- This must remain the base and foundation of our system. We must help the clubs flourish and do everything we can to avoid conflict with club games. This may be unavoidable to some degree but should be minimized. But in turn, seeing higher level teams succeed will show our young players at the junior and club level that they truly have a pathway and a place to go in rugby. This will help the club game AND the higher level teams.

Provincial/Interbranch rugby- There is a proud tradition in this country of teams playing as Provincial teams. In our region, the NS Keltics, the Newfoundland Rock and the NB Spruce are obvious examples. Similar Provincial, City, or Branch/Sub Union teams exist across the country. Simply, these teams should continue to play and be encouraged and assisted to play. Out east, NS and NL are already scheduled to play each other twice and are looking for other games. This is not a conflict if scheduled well as it has been for these games (after the earlier suggested window) but an opportunity for players to again get more games and to put their hands up for the next level. By working together on scheduling and ID of players we can all succeed in maintain proud traditions and making all our players better.

CRC U19 Competition- This is an excellent competition which has thrived and developed many great players. We support the continuation of this competition with regional teams and feel that there are player pathway, organizational, and fundraising synergies with the competitions. Simply, they will help each other grow and be sustainable.

We have had advanced discussion with coaches and administrators in Quebec and Ontario. We understand that discussions are happening in Western Canada and expect that these will accelerate. We consider this a formal ask/notification that we wish to proceed as noted above and seek support from key individuals in rugby in Canada, The Canadian Rugby Foundation, Rugby Canada, and our club, provincial and branch/sub-union partners.

No solution is perfect, and discussion and collaboration are key. We are at an inflection point in Canadian Men’s Rugby, and at some point, and that point is now, it’s time to sail forward.

Kindest regards from the Pirate Flagship,

Dr. John Gillis
Founder and President
Atlantic Privateers Rugby Club

Editor’s Comments

I’ve seen a lot of different attempts to have a national competition, there was the RCSL of course, it worked well in its day. You can Wiki it here.

The NA4 worked well, again you can Wiki it here. Both of those competitions were pre-2010.

The CRC, 2009-2018, was perhaps less effective but kept the national competition going. The ARC 2009-2019 had some impact and included Canada, USA and South America

Some of these competitions were supported with money from World Rugby and that’s part of the issue, money. Travelling across Canada is expensive.

Last year in summer rugby, the Highlanders were basically the BC rep team, they were based on a hosting model but they spent a lot of money that wasn’t recouped through ticket sales or sponsorship. The Highlanders hosted international teams like Germany, Barbados, Brazil and a Canadian XV. The Atlantic Privateers liked to host as well, the Coast to Coast Cup, but they also travelled to Ontario and Quebec.

In winter rugby, the UBCOB Ravens were the strongest team, it looks like it’s the same this year. There was also the Canadian Rugby Foundation’s effort to create a Canadian Club Championship which didn’t last long, but was won by the Ravens who also defeated the Houston Sabercats of the MLR in 2018.

So what’s the solution, personally, I prefer a model that worked well in the past. If players wanted to aspire to the national team, and weren’t playing professionally, they would play winter rugby in the BC Premier, and play against the likes of the Ravens and the Rugby Canada Academy team, the Pacific Pride. It was the top rugby in the country. Then in the summer play rugby in Alberta or out East, or travel to NZ or Australia and play Premier club rugby there.

If the Canadian Rugby Foundation or funding partners want to put money into elite development then do what the women did in the run up to the last World Cup, select the top 50 players in the country, fly them to one location for a week long camp and have a set of possible v probable matches. Make it an event, put on a quality live show and live stream it.

The Privateers playing the Arrows Academy and a Quebec Selects team is good, plus trips down the northeast USA to play MLR Academy teams. I’m not sure if there’s an appetite from BC Rugby to put money into travelling to the East coast. I’m not sure if the Highlanders will be back next year or interested in travelling. I would get enthused around a Top 50 players match or series of matches. Also there’s the idea of a Canada A side touring to South America, that would get rugby fans interested.

I wish the Privateers all the best, I don’t know what the BCRU or Highlanders plans are yet for senior men’s rugby. The BCRU obviously supports the CRC U19 every year but we’ll see what happens in senior men’s rugby. The most successful implementation out west recently, besides the Highlanders, for summer rugby was the Canada West team put together by Phil Mack in 2022. They had an Island v Mainland match, hosted the American Raptors, then travelled to the Coast to Coast Cup.