A Reflection on the Canada U18 Tour to California in January 2020; A Look at Where Players Are Now
With little rugby happening in BC and Canada right now I thought I’d go back to January 2020 and revisit the Canada U18 tour to California to take on the USA U18 teams and then a couple of touring sides from South Africa. The tour started in December 2019 and finished up in January 2020. The tour included 6 games in total with 4 wins and 2 losses for the Canadian teams.
One of the great stories from the tour were the parents who organized the live stream when neither USA Rugby or Rugby Canada could or would. It’s the power of parent volunteers, something that the provincial and national bodies need to tap into more. If you scroll down through the stories from 2020 below you’ll see the write up on the parents live stream along with the match videos and rosters.
I was quickly going through the player list from 5 years ago, wondering where many of these U18 elite players are now. Some are recognizable right away, Tyler Matchem at the Pride and now capped for Canada, Matt Klimchuk went through the Pride and was capped by the senior team, the McMullin brothers both capped and playing for UBC, Ethan Fryer capped and playing in MLR, Logan Weidner playing in MLR. A number of players played or are playing at the BC universities, Relmu Wilson-Valdes (UBC), Ethan Jurgeneit (TWU), Payton Teneycke (UBC), Phoenix Moller (UVic), Rhys Patterson (UVic), Jan Lourens (TWU), Max Abercrombie (UBC), Josiah Levale (TWU). Sam Reimer played in the MLR and was with Capilano last time I looked, Jamin Hodgkins is returning from Wales to play with the Pride this spring, Liam Bowman played Canada 7s last season. There are many where we don’t know where they’re playing rugby now, if at all. Mehdi Porchet, for example, a prop who was playing in France, he played Canada U20 in 2022 and at that time was listed as Stade Montois.
Canada U18 Complete California Tour with Two Wins Over Blue Bull Academy Teams
Canada ended their California tour with two wins in the World Youth Rugby Festival against two South African touring sides. The two sides are part of the Blue Bulls Academy program, one named the Kudu and the other Nyala.
Canada White 28-24 South Africa Kudu
Canada Red 50-14 South Africa Nyala
The matches against the South African sides were part of the World Youth Rugby Festival. They have archived video of their tournament on Youtube. The link is here.
CANADA LINEUPS
Canada Again Split Matches with USA: Canada Red Win 33-25; Canada White Lose 27-22: FULL MATCH VIDEO
Canada and USA are very close in playing level at the U18 age group, witnessed by four games that finished with differences of 8, 5, 7 and 2. With Canada winning two and USA winning two. USA Blue ended up going 2-0, Canada White and Red both 1-1 and USA White 0-2.
Canada Red started the day with a 33-25 win over USA White. Canada were behind at the half 20-14 with tries by Phoenix Moller and Matt Klimchuk, 2 converts by Max Abercrombie. Canada came back in the second half to outscore the USA 19-5 and reverse the trend from the first two matches. 2nd half tries were by Jacob Ince, Josiah Levale, Rhys Patterson with converts by Max Abercrombie.
Canada White faced USA Blue next and went ahead 10-3 with a try by Prince Ndukwe, convert & penalty from Jamin Hodgkins. The USA outscored Canada in the second half 24 to 12 for a 27-22 final. Second half tries were by Prince Ndukwe and Luke Gregory with convert by Talon McMullin.
Canada now plays two games against the Blue Bulls Academy team from South Africa on January 3rd.
One of the interesting stories from Day 2 was two Canadian parents live streaming the matches on their own. The following was a post on the Rugby Canada facebook page from one of the parents, Dirk Snyman.
Hi there, We are the proud Canadian parents of the under 18 Canadian team playing against the USA team in San Diego today. December 31st, 2019. Due to the fact that USA do not have live streaming there today, we have set up an ad hoc live streaming attempt for our Canada based parents. You are most welcome to share the following link with your parents of the USA team. Hopefully this will help everyone who are far away to also enjoy their child’s achievements We are happy to share with both USA and Canada rugby families and supporters
Regards the Canadian Rugby family to the US Rugby family GO Canada !!
YouTube Livestream archive courtesy of Canadian parents – Dirk Snyman et al
CANADA RED
CANADA WHITE
PLAYER BY POSITION
from Rugby Canada
Canada’s Under-18 Men’s head coach Mike Curran has named the squad that will travel down to California for the December tour to close out 2019.
The group will be split into Canada Red and Canada White and play two internationals against USA Blue and USA White on December 28th and 31st. The teams will then head to Los Angeles for a scrimmage each against the Blue Bulls Academy Side in the World Youth Festival on January 3rd.
The tour pulls together athletes from across the country, identified through regional camps and provincial competition throughout the year and gives them the opportunity to be tested at the international level.
“The U18 level is a critical step in exposing players to the demands of international rugby,” said Curran. “Players will be tested in the way they prepare, play, and review.”
The U18 program plays a critical role in the national team pathway, staying aligned with Under-20 and Senior program objectives as they look to develop athletes with Senior National team aspirations.
“Throughout this tour, players will be asked to play the game at greater speed and under greater pressure,” added Curran. “We want to facilitate the growth of these players under greater pressure than they have seen in the past. Being creative is the primary theme.”
This tour will play a role in selection going into 2020, giving athletes an opportunity to put their hand up for age-grade national team play in the new year.
“Next year, the U18s will select a single side to compete in the international festival in July at Brentwood College, teams are still being confirmed. The goal is to have a significant number of the players transition to the U20s for a two-year process.”
The team’s matches against the USA will take place on December 28th and 31st, at 4pm ET/ 1pm PT and 5:30pm ET/ 2:30pm PT on both days.
As of now there will be no live streaming options available, but half time and full time scores updated on Rugby Canada’s social media channels with live updates on USA Rugby’s twitter feed.
Canada’s U18 Roster:
Max Abercrombie- Castaway Wanderers (BC)
David Adeleye- Bytown Blues (ON)
Mathew Amyotte- Strathcona Druids (AB)
Carson Artt- Waterloo (ON)
David Begin- Bayside Sharks (BC)
Liam Bowman- Oakville Crusaders (ON)
Storm Buck- Kelowna Crows (BC)
Michael Chapman- Fergus Highland (ON)
Adam Doyle- Kingston Panthers RFC (ON)
Aiden Emmens- Oshawa Vikings (ON)
Kobe Faust- Oshawa Vikings (ON)
Hanno Fourie- Campbell River (BC)
Ethan Fryer- Naas RFC (USA)
Brock Gillespie- Peterborough Pagans (ON)
Luke Gregory- Oshawa Vikings (ON)
Cameron Haynes- Toronto Saracens (ON)
Jamin Hodgkins- Atlantic Rock (BD)
Isaac Hokanson- Shawnigan Lake School (AB)
Jacob Ince- Crusaders Rugby Club (ON)
Ethan Jurgeneit- Barrie RFC (ON)
Matt Klimchuck- Regina Rogues (SK)
Jérémi Leduc-Féougier- Montreal Irish RFC (QC)
Josiah Levale- Abbotsford RFC (BC)
Jan Lourens- Clansmen RFC (AB)
Tyler Matchem- Nova Scotia Keltics (NS)
Brendan McKerrow- Crusaders Rugby Club (ON)
Talon McMullin- Earl Mariott High School (BC)
Takoda McMullin- Earl Mariott High School (BC)
Phoenix Moller- Robert Bateman SS (BC)
Tom Morrissey- Mont-Tremblant RFC (QC)
Prince Ndukwe- Balmy Beach (ON)
Joel Nordstrom- Strathcona Druids (AB)
Josh Nordstrom- Strathcona Druids (AB)
Rhys Patterson- Toronto Saracens (ON)
Duncan Phillips- Ottawa Irish (ON)
Armand Pienaer- Action Rugby (ON)
Mehdi Porchet- Oyonnax Rugby (FR)
Sam Reimer- Ajax Wanderers (ON)
David Scollon- Oakville Crusaders (ON)
Sean Snyman- Oakville Crusaders (ON)
Dan Svoboda- Ajax Wanderers (ON)
Payton Teneycke- Brandon Barbarians RFC (MB)
James Topping- Oakville Crusaders (ON)
Darius Towers- Regina Grads (SK)
Jared Usmar- Toronto Saracens (ON)
De Wet Van RooYan- Red Deer Titans (SA)
Logan Weidner- Carson Graham Secondary (BC)
Relmu Wilson-Valdez- LV Rogers SS (BC)
Jayden Woodworth- Fredericton Loyalists (NB)
Jackson Wright- Lethbridge Rugby Club (AB)
Canada’s Schedule:
Dec 28 – Chula Vista Training Center, San Diego, CA
1:00pm PT Canada Red vs USA Blue
2:30pm PT Canada White vs USA White
Dec 31 – Chula Vista Training Center, San Diego, CA
1:00pm PT Canada White vs USA Blue
2:30pm PT Canada Red vs USA White
Jan 3 World Youth Festival, Los Angeles, CA
https://worldyouthrugbyfestival.com/
TBA Canada White vs Blue Bulls Academy Side (SA)
TBA Canada Red vs Blue Bulls Academy Side (SA)
Parent Power – How a Group of Travelling Parents Put Together a Live Stream of an International U18 Match at a Pitch Without Power or WiFi
[editor’s comments below with technical details from Richard Topping]
I’ve always been a big advocate of harnessing the tremendous energy and talent parents bring to the game, both behind the scene and in this case, from the sideline. This was the case on Tuesday when a group of parents travelling with the Canadian U18 teams put on a live stream of the two Canada vs USA matches for the public to watch on YouTube. Here is the link to the games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5216&v=UcoJ0aKC74I
The quality of the live stream was better than we’ve seen on many broadcasts and it was done at a field that had no wifi and no electrical outlets. It was beyond the scope of the national unions to put this together and officially both USA Rugby and Rugby Canada had announced, “no live stream”. Enter the MacGyvers of the rugby world, the travelling Canadian parents. I spoke to two parents who took the lead on this Dirk Snyman and Richard Topping, both from the Oakville Crusaders club in Ontario. How do you put together a live stream without power or a wired or wifi internet signal?
First up was to buy a T-mobile travel card from Amazon for unlimited everything for 10 days… about $25 CAD. The 3.5 hours of streaming used about 6.6 GB of data.
Next buy extra batteries for your laptop, Richard and another parent went shopping locally and bought batteries for the laptop they were using. The smaller backup battery (350 watts) ran for about 45 mins only. The larger 800 watt battery ran until the end of both games with about 40 mins remaining. The laptop was running Windows 10 and had a i5-6200U CPU with 8GB RAM, it was a couple of years old. You would also need enough extra battery power for your camcorder to record for the approximately 3 hours (2 games). They were using an older Panasonic model camcorder, about 8 years old, that had HDMI output.
The key to making this work was that Richard had packed away an HDMI to USB 3.0 capture card in his suitcase. This takes the camcorder HDMI video output and encodes it to USB 3.0 to create your laptop’s video input. He used a “EZCAP287 USB3.0 1080P HD Game Live Broadcast Video Capture Box” which if you google it costs less than $100 CAD. It was the only specialized piece of equipment needed to make this work and fortunately Richard had been dabbling with the idea of live streaming for his club next season so decided to sling it in the suitcase, just in case.
The laptop was “tethered” to Richard’s mobile phone through another USB port which provided the live internet connection to take the place of a wifi or wired internet connection. That was basically it, a mobile phone with a sufficiently large data plan or prepaid card, a laptop with USB 3.0 input, an external HDMI to USB 3.0 encoder, a camcorder with HDMI output. Add in some external mics and an audio mixer if you want to add some extras in the commentary department.
Almost forgot, the software running on the laptop to make it happen was Streamlabs OBS – Open Broadcaster Software, it’s free software you can download online. Richard added an OBS scoring app called FlexScore which allowed him to add a scoreboard and clock.
So kudos to Richard, Dirk and the rest of the parents who supported the effort, well done.