From the Editor’s Desk: Canada’s New Director of High Performance and Canada Men’s XVs Summer Matches
Even though there’s nothing official, which isn’t surprising from Rugby Canada, this is the latest info we have on what’s happening at HQ.
They’ve selected a High Performance Director, this was one of the High Performance Review recommendations, recommendation #6 “Establish and hire a High-Performance Director distinct from coach roles”. The review was from March 2022 so Rugby Canada haven’t exactly been racing through to complete the recommendations. For example recommendation #5 was, “Evaluate current leadership and coach effectiveness” and who knows if that was ever done. Apparently the new HPD (and CEO) will be responsible for completing #5, maybe they’re working backwards through the recommendation list from 10 to 1.
The new HPD, according to our sources, is Stephen Aboud from Ireland. He’s been with the Italian rugby union since 2016 as the Head of Technical Direction for the Development of Players and Coaches. Before that he was with the Irish rugby union for 26 years in various roles from Head of Technical Direction, National Coach Development Manager and Elite Player Development Manager. We’ll see when Rugby Canada comes through with an announcement.
Other news is that the Canada men’s XVs do indeed have some summer matches. The Pacific Nations are the prime candidates, although nothing official has been announced. We notice Tonga, Samoa and Fiji are all playing Japan on subsequent weekends in Japan, Japan v Samoa July 22nd, Japan v Tonga July 29th and Japan v Fiji August 4th. Currently, there’s no mention of other matches involving those Pacific Nations during that time frame. The Pacific Nations Cup has gone ahead in previous World Cup years and Canada has taken part in the competition 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019. So that’s our best guess, again waiting for Rugby Canada to provide some clarity around the men’s XVs program this summer.