Rugby Canada have completed the announcement of their summer/fall schedule for the men’s XVs team with the Canada v USA fixture in Calgary on August 22nd. That will give them 5 games between July and September, possibly 6 if they finish in the top 4 at the Pacific Nations. World Rugby have also announced the full schedule for the Pacific Nations. Both reports are listed below.
Coach Christiaan Esterhuizen has selected 32 players to make the trip to Fiji in May/June to play Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. There is no JWRT U20 championship this year, and there’s been no mention from World Rugby on what future plans are for U20 programs outside of the Tier 1 nations who are holding their Junior World U20 Championships in June/July in Italy.
If you’re not a regular starter in MLR, can you be considered an automatic for Canada selection? That’s a valid question as Canada looks towards its World Cup qualifier this year. If you’re good enough to get a regular starting slot in MLR, it’s likely you’ll be in contention for national team match selection but that introduces a problem as Canada doesn’t have MLR starters in several key position, the halfbacks, an openside flanker, the centres.
The Canada men’s XVs team will host Belgium and Spain at Edmonton’s Clarke Stadium in July. It will be Canada vs Belgium on Saturday July 12th and then Canada v Spain on Friday July 18th.
The Canada men’s U20 camp wrapped up on Sunday with an inter-squad match. Some comments from those at the match indicate the game was played in good spirits with black scrum dominating in the first half.
We compared our Pacific Pride list from the start of the fall season 2024, 6 have moved on (3 to MLR). There are 9 new players but include 3 returning players, 2 started late in the fall and 1 is returning from previous seasons. There are 3 players from the U18 camps held in 2024, 2 from Ontario universities and 1 from the Welsh Premier.
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.
It’s the day Canadian rugby supporters have been waiting for. When Canada didn’t make the 2023 Rugby World Cup for the first time in its history, the rugby community expected the coaching situation would be resolved quickly, instead Rugby Canada extended Kingsley Jones’ contract. The USA in contrast immediately removed their coach when they failed to make the World Cup and results have improved dramatically under domestic coach and former Eagle, Scott Lawrence, who understood the infrastructure, the culture and the steps needed to rebuild the USA men’s XVs program.
Canada put in a better effort this week against Romania, but still fell 35-27. It’s the 5th straight loss for Canada in 2024 and renews calls for a coaching change. Canada are projected to fall to 23rd in the world rankings when the ranking are released on Monday.
Chile scored in the first 30 seconds of the match, that pretty well summed up the match. Chile came out with intensity, they kicked long, chased well, swarmed the receiver whose support was slow arriving, the ball popped out of the ruck, several offloads later and they were over, 5-0. The difference in the level of intensity between the two teams was noticeable in that first minute. It looked like Ethan Fryer may have been the one injured in that ruck as he staggered off under assistance. #20 Sion Parry came into the match.