Reflecting on the Men’s 7s Series Exit and Canada U20 Loss to USA
It’s time to double back on a couple of stories from last week and dig down a bit deeper. The first story is the men’s 7s team getting relegated from the World Rugby 7s series, the second story is the men’s U20 loss to the USA on home soil. Both are connected through a theme of “what’s happening with the national men’s rugby programs”?
The first question that came up when realizing the men’s 7s won’t be on the series next year is, how will this affect the Vancouver 7s event. I had a reader ask this already and Rugby Canada anticipated a lot of people asking this when they came out with a statement (posted below), that said in part, “Further to our discussions with World Rugby, we look forward to welcoming the HSBC SVNS Series back to Vancouver in 2025, and we will work to ensure a format that can include our men’s national team competing at BC Place to ensure our Canadian fans will be able to cheer on both our women’s and men’s national teams.”
Obviously Rugby Canada expects the Vancouver 7s to go on as expected, there’s no reason it shouldn’t, but how will it affect attendance without a Canada men’s team in the competition? Rugby Canada states it will “work to” ensure a format that includes the men’s team but that’s just talk right now, what concessions will World Rugby make? Will it be an exhibition match during a break in play, maybe an Elite invitational tournament at UBC with the final in the stadium (hopefully including Canada)? It’s hard to imagine what it will look like at this point. Still it will be interesting to monitor attendance figures next year without Canada men as a core team.
The second question is, what’s the future of coach Sean White. Losing 29 straight games isn’t exactly something you want to brag about. That brings us back to Rugby Canada’s handling of the XVs coaching situation, they extended Kingsley Jones’ contract by two years after he failed to make the World Cup. Now that you’ve rewarded failure how can you hold the 7s coach accountable without having a double standard? Rugby Canada have in a way rewarded failure as part of their culture in the men’s program. It’s still a mystery who was behind that contract renewal, Sally Dennis former Chair of the Board, Nathan Bombrys the CEO or Stephen Aboud the recently hired High Performance Director, hopefully one day that will become known.
The third question is how will this affect funding for the program. The government invests in the 7s program through Own the Podium based on Olympic medal potential, it’s not looking so great for the men’s program. Also there’s individual carding for players, now that they’re off the Series will that be impacted? In 2023-24 the women’s program received $1,100,000 from Own the Podium based on medal potential, the men received $475,000. What will the 2024-25 figures look like?
I guess the fourth question is what does the future look like? There’s the Olympic repechage tournament coming up June 21 in Monaco. Canada are in tough, South Africa will be favourites, then Great Britain, then Spain, there’s only one position being awarded. After that Canada will be in the Challenger series to get back on the Series again, there were three tournaments last season to make the top four places. It won’t get the same media coverage, it’s women in Tier 1 and men in Tier 2. On a potential positive note, Rugby Canada could bid to host one of the tournaments, maybe in Langford… just an after thought. Another positive, surely Canada will break their 29 game losing streak being in the same pool as China, Uganda and Great Britain in the Olympic repechage. Canada’s first match will be against Uganda, surely, surely, that will be a win!
Now time to look at the men’s U20 program. A minus 35 loss in the series, on home soil, Canada have always won on home soil. Canada went to the JWRT in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 before COVID cancelled 2020, 2021, 2022, USA have now won 2023, 2024. Jeff Williams and Adam Roberts did a credible job as part time coaches until the wheels fell off last year but that was hosted in the USA, it makes a big difference at this age level. It all goes back to how the two rugby unions reacted after not making the World Cup, the USA fired their coach and hired Scott Lawrence, former national team player, former USA U20 coach. He’s now men’s head coach and GM, so he has the equivalent of Kingsley Jones’ job and part of Stephen Aboud’s job in men’s high performance. Canada on the other hand gave their losing coach a contract extension, it’s still unbelievable every time I write it. I knew Canada were in trouble, especially at the U20 level, when USA announced Scott Lawrence as GM and senior men’s coach. He took the 2012 USA U20 to the Tier 1 championship by winning the JWRT that year, that was impressive. You knew he would take the U20 competition seriously and that he knew how to win. It’s proven so these last two years. Canada on the other hand have been aimless in leadership, we’ll see how next year goes now that the head coach, Christiaan Esterhuizen, is full time and also in charge of the Rugby Canada academy team, Pacific Pride.
As this summer comes on the horizon attention now focuses on the men’s XVs program, there’s always hope, right?
I’ll end the article reflecting on some great coaches Canada has had recently and their results. Unfortunately Rugby Canada let these gems go, to rugby’s detriment in Canada. Francois Ratier took the women’s XVs team to 2nd place at the 2014 World Cup, just losing to England, he then jumped in and took over the men’s XVs when Kieran Crowley left and got Canada’s best ARC result – he should have been made men’s head coach permanently. John Tait took the women’s 7s program to Olympic Bronze in 2016, what could he do with the men’s program? Damian McGrath won Canada’s only 7s Series Gold at Singapore in 2017, now a consultant, Rugby Canada could use his services. Other coaches are doing great things, Robin MacDowell with youth rugby and talent ID, Curry Hitchborn with his UBC dynasty and now starting the Vancouver Highlanders, there are too many to mention by name but the national men’s program would be a lot better off if Rugby Canada started utilizing the talents of these individuals.
from Rugby Canada
The 2024 HSBC SVNS Series concluded on Sunday, with Canada’s Men’s Sevens Team losing in their relegation play-off match, and therefore have not qualified for the 2025 HSBC SVNS Series.
“We commend the efforts of our players and coaches who have given so much for the Canadian cause,” said Nathan Bombrys, CEO of Rugby Canada. “We are all deeply disappointed with the result over the weekend, and no one more so than our players.”
“Further to our discussions with World Rugby, we look forward to welcoming the HSBC SVNS Series back to Vancouver in 2025, and we will work to ensure a format that can include our men’s national team competing at BC Place to ensure our Canadian fans will be able to cheer on both our women’s and men’s national teams.”
“Being relegated from the men’s HSBC SVNS World Series hurts and does not reflect our expectations for this program. We will be working to rebuild our program in the coming months, as we all want to see our team back competing against the very best in the world.”
“For now, we turn our focus and support toward to the World Rugby Sevens Repechage in Monaco and supporting our team’s efforts to qualify for Paris.”
The World Rugby Sevens Repechage will take place over June 21 to 23 in Monaco, the tournament will see 12 men’s teams competing for the final remaining Olympic berth. Canada will compete in Pool B with Great Britain, Uganda and China, with the full schedule to be released by World Rugby shortly.