I have to admit, most of the Canadian rugby community feels sucker punched by Stephen Aboud right now. Instead of hiring Jamie Cudmore, who was the Canadian choice, he went for Australian Steve Meehan. I’ve had a few messages from Canadian rugby fans but as I’ve explained when you hire an American CEO and an Irish High Performance Director, you can’t expect a Canadian solution. Thank the current and previous Rugby Canada Board for that.
Great article on RugbyPass (owned by World Rugby) about Jamie Cudmore, the state of men’s rugby in Canada and the cancel culture at Rugby Canada that’s preventing his return… “is there no forgiveness?”
It’s not what was wanted from last year’s perspective. Ideally the men’s team would still be on the World Rugby 7s series and, with the women, drawing in the crowd. Will the crowds still come without the men in the main tournament or do people just want to party and rugby is the extra bonus. We’ll find out in February.
A couple of recent topics merit some attention as the year winds down. There’s been rumours circulating out of Italy about Stephen Aboud’s return, we’ll keep an eye on that. Of course everyone wants to know what is happening with Kingsley Jones replacement, at least what’s the process, again something to keep an eye on. We post some thoughts on those topics below.
The BC Bears boys won their Bowl quarter-final over Belmont Shore from California, 19-7 but lost the semi-finals to Saracens 33-5. Saracens would go on to win the Bowl final and claim 17th place. That would put the boys ranking as 19/20 place at the tournament. The boys tournament was won by the Australia U18 team.
Karl Fix Open Letter to Rugby Canada in Support of Jamie Cudmore as Head Coach
The following is an open letter from Karl Fix to the CEO of Rugby Canada and the Rugby Canada Board. It’s in support of Jamie Cudmore as Canadian Head Coach. The recent announcement by Rugby Canada that Kingsley Jones will be vacating that position has opened the options for a new head coach.
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.
CV Rapids out of Comox Valley won both the Girls U16 and U18 titles, defeating Abbotsford 29-7 in U16 and claiming the double over Abbotsford with a 12-10 win in U18. CW out of Oak Bay won the Boys U18 with a 36-31 win over UBCOB Ravens, Abbotsford defeated CW in Boys U16 by a score of 10 to 7 to claim the title.
It’s a big improvement for Canada, going from 8th in Dubai to 5th in Cape Town. Along the way they defeated Great Britain 27-12 and Japan 22-7. Japan defeated Canada twice in Dubai, so the Cape Town result shows the growth the team have had in between tournaments. The next challenge will be Perth in January, 24-26.
The Canadian men have a date in March in South Africa. There they will play two back to back tournaments and hope to finish in the top 8 or their journey is over. Only the top 8 teams will move on to Poland in April, and then only the top 4 will move on to LA for the promotion/relegation tournament in May.