Category Archives: Rugby Canada

Rugby Canada Updates – October 2023

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Rugby Canada Extends Kingsley Jones Contract for Two Years – Reaction from the Rugby Community

[editor’s comments below]

You know the joke, an American, an Irishman and a Welshman walk into a bar – the punch line of the joke is Rugby Canada. An American CEO backed by World Rugby money, hires an Irish High Performance Director who extends the contract of a Welsh coach. A coach who oversaw Canada not making the World Cup for the first time in Rugby World Cup history, losing to USA, Uruguay and Chile. A coach who hasn’t been able to get the top European professionals to commit to playing for Canada. A coach who has seen the morale of the men’s XVs program at an all time low and long time supporters walk away from the game in disbelief at Rugby Canada’s decision making.

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High Performance – May 2023

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Rugby Canada Announce Stephen Aboud as Director of High Performance

We had covered this in a May 3rd article but Rugby Canada made their official announcement today. If you want to get some insights into his work with Italy, listen to the Irish podcast embedded below. It was recorded February 2023 and has some candid views on his recent work in Italy. Based on that I’m anticipating he’ll be putting a significant amount of emphasis on the 17-19 age group in his development plans. It will be interesting to follow his progress and see if he can create successful high performance development structures in Canada.

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RAN Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2023

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Pools Announced for Rugby 7s Olympic Qualifier in August at Starlight Stadium in Langford: Tickets Go On Sale May 9th

from Rugby Canada

Tickets for the rugby sevens regional qualification event for Paris 2024 that will be hosted at Starlight Stadium in Langford, BC over August 19-20 will go on sale on Tuesday May 9, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET.

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1991 Rugby World Cup Team

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Rugby Canada Announces 2022 Hall of Fame Inductees: Throwback to BC Sports Hall of Fame Induction of 1991 World Cup Team in 2018 and 36 Page Tribute Booklet

Rugby Canada announced their selections for the 2022 Rugby Canada Hall of Fame, that media release is below. One of the their selections was the 1991 men’s World Cup team. That team was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2018 and for the occasion a 36 page tribute booklet was produced. We have a copy on our server in .pdf format – the link is posted below.

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Rugby Canada Updates – January 2023

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Rugby Canada Add Two More UK Hirings to be Shared with Toronto Arrows – Bombrys States Arrows Provide Canada’s Only Professional High Performance Environment

New CEO Nathan Bombrys is doubling down on bringing in offshore expertise and doubling down in his belief the Toronto Arrows are the solution to the men’s XVs problems. Rugby Canada announced Alex Lee, previously with Ealing Trailfinders, and Richard Owen, previously with the Welsh Rugby Union, will be hired and embedded with the Toronto Arrows for the season. Outside of the MLR season they’ll be assigned Rugby Canada team duties. It’s an arrangement similar to Robert Howley’s, there’s no word if World Rugby are also paying these salaries, as they do for Howley.

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Canadian Rugby Players Association

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Rugby Canada Announces New MOU with Canadian Rugby Players Association: A Look Back on the Player Strike of 2018 and Formation of CRPA in 2020

Rugby Canada announced a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed with the Canadian Rugby Players Association (CRPA) which marks the beginning of discussions on a new collective agreement. The CRPA was started in 2020 and its first chair was Jeff Hassler.

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