A Look at the 2026 Schedule for Canadian National Teams

It’s New Year’s Eve, time to celebrate the past year, you can view our four articles that highlight the past year, January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December. It’s also time to look at 2026. The national women’s XVs will be playing their Pacific Four series in April/May then a new WXV Global in the fall. England will be visiting in October for at least two matches. Canada didn’t host any Pacific Four matches in 2025 so are due to host some in 2026. The men’s national XVs will be part of the Nations Cup and that schedule is already known, 3 July matches at home and 3 away matches in Europe in November. As for 7s the women have already completed 2 tournaments in the 2025/26 season and have their next tournament in Singapore at the end of January. The men are in the SVNS 3 tournament in January, they have to finish top two to continue their season.

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Canada Fall to Portugal 33-27 to Close Out November Tour

It was as close to a win that Canada got this November, 16-16 at the half, and their scrum wasn’t battered as in the first two matches. It was Canada’s there for the taking, down 6 points, the man advantage, the ball 15 metres out from the goal line in front of the posts, four minutes left. Then one attempt at a clever, no look, pass that’s intercepted and suddenly they’re defending inside their 22 with time expiring. That play seemed to epitomise the Canada’s men’s XVs mindset right now. Instead of playing high percentage, patient rugby in this situation, it’s a 50-50 go for glory option that’s chosen. Is it a lack of confidence, a lack of leadership, a lack of communication? The game goes into the “could have won but didn’t” category, an improvement over the “never in the game” category.

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Canada Fall to Georgia 38-17: Matt Oworu Puts in Solid Performance for Canada

Canada can take some solace from their never give up attitude but the match was over by 53′ when Georgia were up 31-3. Again the Canada backline didn’t have much to show, the forwards couldn’t consistently break the gain line and often went backwards. Canada had to resort to a kicking game which netted them some territory gains and kept Georgia in their own end. When Georgia decided to start running the ball back it caused some problems for the Canadian defence. The Georgia winger, #14 Shalva Aptsiauri, scored 3 tries and set up a fourth with an offload at the goal line. Canada’s scrum was under pressure during the match and gave up some crucial penalties.

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Canada Fall to Romania 31-21 in First November Test: Next Up Georgia

It was pretty much the game expected by most pundits when the 21st ranked team hosted the 24th ranked team. There wasn’t much backline brilliance and the Romanian scrum dominated the match. The first 12 points from Romania came from the boot with infractions by Canada inside their own half, one at the breakdown, one at the lineout and two at the scrum. It was actually Canada and Mason Flesch who scored the first try, 12-7 at the half.

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Canada Announce 33 Players for November Tour – Coaching Changes, New Players, 13 BC Premier Players on Tour

Coach Stephen Meehan has named 33 players for the November tour to Europe to play Romania, Georgia and Portugal. A few early observations, Phil Mack isn’t mentioned in the coaching staff which seems to confirm rumours there was some falling out with Stephen Meehan and he’s not part of the coaching staff anymore. We’ve reached out to several sources for confirmation. The coaches are listed as forwards coach Anthony Mathison, the fellow Australian who seems to be Meehan’s right hand man, Graeme Moffat skills coach who is the head coach at the University of Lethbridge, and Callum Gibbins who is now listed as defence coach. Gibbins currently seems to be the head coach of the Conestoga Condors, a college in Kitchener, Ontario. He was previously a high level player from NZ, most recently playing with Old Glory in the MLR.

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Rugby Canada Formally Announce Three November Tests Against Romania, Georgia, and Portugal

This was information already known to the rugby community but Rugby Canada have made it official with an announcement and some more details. Hopefully it will be a chance for some new players to get evaluated at the international level. The coach’s team selections will give some insight on whether his actions match his words, “also giving opportunities to a few players who weren’t part of the Pacific Nations Cup but could play a key role in our World Cup campaign”. We’ll also be keeping an eye on the assistant coaching situation for the November tour as we’ve heard some rumours about changes there.

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Canada Fall to Tonga 35-24 to Finish 4th in Pacific Nations Cup

A better performance by Canada who were competitive in the match and there were some standout plays by key players, Matt Oworu for the second week in a row was probably the best Canadian player, he also scored a try. Brock Gallagher scored a brilliant solo try which was initially setup by strong work at the breakdown by Talon McMullin, winning Canada a penalty which put the ball in the Tonga zone. Peter Nelson put his body on the line to scored a try and that was setup by some slick play by Spencer Jones.

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Canada Demolished by Fiji 63-10 in Pacific Nations Semi-Final: Face Tonga Next Saturday for 3rd/4th

It wasn’t pretty and a bit painful to watch but it was a reality check of where Canada stacks up against a top 10 team. Canada has qualified for the World Cup but they’ll face better teams than Fiji in the pool round so they have a lot of work to do before 2027. In fairness they were missing a number of key players, Ardron and Rumball from the loose forwards, Olmstead in the second row, Coats, Webster and Coe in the backs, those players make a difference.

Canada’s tackle statistic in the match, according to the World Rugby Pacific Nations website, was a 66% tackle success rate and 155 tackles made. A 66% tackle success rate is not good, when Wales defeated Fiji in the 2023 World Cup they had to make 252 tackles.

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Canada Men Qualify for 2027 World Cup in Australia

It’s official from World Rugby, Canada has qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup. One extraordinary game, the win against USA, with the return of Tyler Ardron who scored 4 tries, and Evan Olmstead who was massive in the tight five. Canada have already exceeded their accomplishments from the 2023 World Cup cycle where they failed to qualify.

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