Congratulations to the nine 2024 Hall of Fame inductees. Their profiles are linked below but I have favourite memories for several of them who I’ve crossed paths with in the rugby world.
A good initiative from Rugby Canada in organizing these East/West high performance camps and listing the U18 athletes attending. The only negative we’ve heard is the cost to attend, the amounts seem to vary and may depend where the athlete is coming from. They’ve assembled some good coaching teams including active players as assistant coaches.
Jack Hanratty will leave his position as Head Coach of the national women’s 7s team after the Paris Olympics which ends mid-August. The Rugby Canada press release indicates he will take a short break and start his university role in 2025 which would mean he would miss the 2024 USports rugby season which runs from September to November. The 2024 championship will be hosted by UPEI.
Earlier in the week Phil Mack was announced as the Attack Coach of the men’s XVs program, in that article it stated Phil would remain with the Pride program as “Technical Lead”. We thought that would mean head coach but later Rugby Canada came out with a job opening for the Pacific Pride Pathway Coach that would include being “Head Coach” of the Pride and “Senior Coach” of the men’s U20 program. The deadline for applications is Feb 4th.
Phil Mack the iconic Canadian scrum half has been named as the Attack Coach for the men’s XVs team. Currently acting as head coach of the Pacific Pride, the Rugby Canada Academy, he’ll continue in that role while taking on this new role.
When the Rugby Canada Strategic Plan for 2024-2027 was announced there was some excitement around the National Training Centres initiative. In the plan it states the goal as “Develop high performance rugby centres of excellence in different cities or regions across the country to address the training and competition gap in women’s and men’s high performance rugby ensuring quality alignment with Rugby Canada’s national team strategic objectives.” There were thoughts of Pacific Pride type of programs in other regions of the country.
It’s difficult to get any answers out of Rugby Canada on the men’s U20 program, a critical link to the men’s XVs program. Stephen Aboud was announced in May 2023 as the head of the High Performance programs but 9 months later he’s doing his best impersonation of the invisible man.
Rugby Canada is pleased to announce the Hall of Fame class for 2023. Nine Canadian rugby icons will have their distinguished careers celebrated forever as they enter the Rugby Canada Hall of Fame.
Rugby Canada released its Strategic Plan for the next 3 years. We’ll provide a review of the plan and for reference we’ve included the previous plan, 2021-23. We’ve also included the NZ Rugby Union Strategy 2025 for comparison purposes.