Two Canadian Players at the Nissa Rugby Academy in France with Coach Jamie Cudmore
I had a chance to talk to Jamie Cudmore briefly on Saturday as he was waiting in the Toronto airport to head back to France after spending the holiday season in Newfoundland. He’s a coach at the Nissa Rugby Academy in Nice, France. He was eager to talk about the two Canadian players at the Academy, Joe Kaufmann and Eliot Marschall. Both were part of the Canada U18 camps in 2024 and Kaufmann was on the Canada U20 team in 2025. We were talking about pathways and Jamie spoke about the need to get Canadian players into Tier 1 academies at an earlier age, in this case specifically academies in France. Jamie has worked in France for many years as an elite player and coach and has a deep understanding of the French system with many contacts. I mused that it would be good to have a pathway from Canadian academies to French academies and Jamie indicated that when he was at the Pacific Pride he was working on making that happen.
The pathway system in France is well defined, with License A, B, C designations. Of specific interest from a Canadian perspective is reaching that Level A designation which means you’re no longer considered an import, you need to either spend 5 years playing in France, or 3 years at an approved Academy, “Any player, regardless of nationality, who has spent at least 3 consecutive seasons: in a training center approved by the Ministry of Sports under an approved training agreement and whose training content (school, university or professional) has been validated by the FFR/LNR Training Commission for each of the 3 seasons; OR in a training center certified by the FFR under a registered training contract.”
We’ll keep tabs on the Canadian players at the Nissa Rugby Academy to follow their progress.
Joe Kaufmann (10/15)
Show up 5 times in our article, 4 of them related to the 2025 Canada U20 team and 1 of them related to the Canada U18 team from 2024. In the 2024 article he’s listed as Kingston Panthers.
Elliot Marschall (loose forward)
Shows up once in our articles, at the 2024 Canada U18 camp. In the 2024 article he’s listed as Toronto City Rugby Club. He was announced as a new recruit by UBC 20 weeks ago.
