From the Editor’s Desk – January 2023

Wales Head Coach Warren Gatland Wants Robert Howley Back – A Reflection on the Canadian Coaching Pathway

Warren Gatland wants his coaching mate, Robert Howley, back in the Wales fold. His comments were captured in the Guardian article linked below. He basically wants Howley forgiven but apparently the WRU blocked the move.

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Rugby News From Around the Globe

More Coaches Sacked and Hired: Dave Rennie Gone From Australia and Eddie Jones Hired

The most interesting rugby story to come out of the weekend was the move of Eddie Jones to Australia as coach, as Dave Rennie got the sack in Australia. Jones had been England’s coach but was sacked and there was speculation around his final destination, it’s now confirmed to be Australia. Here are some of the articles on the subject from around the rugby world.

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Coaching Updates – January 2023

USA Rugby Announces Interim Coaches for Men’s & Women’s XVs: Men’s XVs Coach and GM High Performance, Scott Lawrence, Has a Plan

USA Rugby announced on January 5th the appointment of two interim coaches while their high performance review continues. Neither the men’s or women’s XVs team met expectations so the contracts of the head coaches were not renewed and a high performance review initiated.

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2022 in Review

What to Make of 2022 – Rugby Highlights and Reflections

2022, what to make of it from a BC and Canadian rugby perspective? Obviously the top story is the women’s World Cup, Canada finished 4th, maybe a little disappointing for the world #3 team but they represented well, the tournament gained a lot of media coverage and progressed women’s rugby worldwide. Sophie de Goede probably put herself at the top of the list for most media-recognizable rugby player in Canada now, male or female.

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Rugby Fitness

Thoughts on Rugby Fitness, Bronco Tests and the World School 7s

[ed. comments below]

I got on this thread about rugby fitness after watching the Japan SDS team win the World School 7s tournament in NZ. The Japan team defeated the highly favoured Australia and NZ girls teams to win the tournament. I watched a number of games on both the boys and girls side and one thing that jumped out at me was the gap in fitness among teams. Of course fitness alone won’t win 7s matches, but without it, winning is difficult. I contacted a number of coaches who watched the tournament to get their thoughts around the Japan win. One noted, “good skills and the fitness that allows them to use them, a desire to work for each other, plus a couple of strong orchestrators”. Another noted, “if you want to simplify why Japanese teams do this, it all comes down to 2 things, discipline and respect”.

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Editorials – December 2022

Gary Gold Steps Down as USA Coach; Eddie Jones Sacked by England… Meanwhile in Canada

There have been a spate of coaching changes made in the rugby world recently. Last week Eddie Jones was sacked by England and Gary Gold “stepped down” from the USA job, the week started with Wales parting company with Wayne Pivac. They were all related to on field performance of the teams involved, England and Wales were not happy with their team performances leading into a World Cup year. The USA situation was more relatable to Canada, the coach didn’t make the Rugby World Cup, therefore he had to go, there were performance expectations.

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From the Editor’s Desk – October 2022

Rugby Netherlands Confirms Canada Matches; Canadian Classics Defeat Lions Legends in Bermuda; Pacific Pride Jersey Auction This Weekend

Rugby Netherlands Confirms Canada Matches

Rugby Netherlands have confirmed their hosting of Canada on November 12th and also their hosting of the Canada v Namibia match on November 19th. Namibia have also confirmed their match with Canada. Rugby Canada have not released any information yet.

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From the Editor’s Desk – October 2022

O’Leary to Arrows; Canada 7s for 2023; Pride to SLAR Rumours; Americas Rugby Trophy Updates

Shane O’Leary to Arrows

The Toronto Arrows announced the signing of Shane O’Leary. O’Leary had been playing rugby at Rouen in the Pro D2 which is the second level of French rugby. He played for Canada U20 in 2013 and helped them to a second place finish behind Italy at the JWRT. We posted an article on him in 2014 as he was joining Connacht and did an interview in May 2013 when he was preparing for the JWRT and was in Langford. Those articles are here.

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