Opinion: The BC Premier League Has a Crucial Role to Play in the Path to Sustainable Growth
Today’s guest author, Monty Weatherall, has a unique rugby background that gives weight to his opinion on the BC Premier league. He played for Wasps Academy in England growing up, then attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec where he completed a BA in International Development and Entrepreneurship. He played on the McGill University team for 4 years, and was captain in his final year when the team won silver at the Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship (CUMRC). He then moved to BC to play for the Meraloma rugby club in the BC Premier. He worked full time while pursuing his rugby ambitions and in his words “was well supported by the club”. He was later drafted by the Toronto Arrows of the MLR, he made preparations to move to Toronto but when the franchise ceased operation he made a last minute decision to return to the UK and go to Law school. He obtained a post graduate law degree and currently works in Mental Health law and is on the path to qualifying as a Barrister. As he noted, “moving back to Canada is always on my mind, and I will see where a career in Law will take me.”
Much is written in the comments on social media about how to turn around Canada’s recent misfortunes. The conversation typically centres around how Canada needs to focus on the grassroots, improving the club game and recognising the talent that is being produced for progression to high performance pathways. This is the prevailing consensus, though not without its radicals, and reflects the general sentiment among many Canadian rugby fans. They hope for innovative solutions from the Board to address the declines in popularity of the game, and the trend in results on the national stage.
In fitting with this model for growth, the BC Premier League comes at the end of that progression plan. For many aspiring rugby players, the current roots for developing their talents is either the university route or the Pacific Pride. These programs have their obvious strengths, and the pathway is producing players who are getting capped for Canada. However, the talent available in the BC Premiership, players from the clubs who compete regularly with these high performance pathways, often goes untapped. Recognising this talent, and identifying stand out performers for national team consideration could be the most sustainable model for a greater number of high performance pathways in Canada.
It is undeniable that talent is there. Whilst UBC and Pride have had their periods where they have dominated the competition, more recently the club game is putting together strong competition across many of the teams. If the new national team head coach is able to implement the process for identifying the talent in the BC Prem, he could find players outside of the current high performance pathway who have the attributes to play at the top level. The league is an untapped resource, and there are both short and long term benefits of a further exploration of its merits.
A BC Premier League which begins to produce players who are making it to the next level would attract a wider pool of the talent produced at the grassroots. A player who has ambitions to take their game to the top level would be motivated to join the league. If they see the club game as an equal to UBC or Pride, it could open opportunities for clubs to attract better players. The club environment gives individuals more opportunity for flexibility into their commitments to work or studying. Players who may not be considering university or have already graduated can find a high performance environment whilst also addressing the other commitments in their life. More talent seeing the environments offered by clubs as viable options has the snowball effect of creating a league where the overall standard is higher. This gives players chances to compete year round with the best in the country, giving them more competition and improving their abilities further.
A higher performing club game has benefits off of the pitch too. Much has been written about the “product” of rugby being crucial in its long term sustainability. A better league attracts more eyeballs to the game, bringing revenue for the clubs through sponsorship and hospitality. More eyeballs also raises the presence of the game in the media. Traditional media coverage of rugby in BC is rare, but the area where a better league could really begin to create sustainable growth for itself would be the increased presence of new media. Clubs could start to afford to be their own promoters, using the power of social media to reach more people and grow interest in the game nationwide.
Critics of the club game would say that the environments are not professional enough to consistently produce talent that could take their game to the next level. High performing clubs need robust strength and conditioning, increased contact hours with players for training and coaching, and improved support for injury and rehabilitation. However, the growth of the league that would come with the increased attractiveness to talent would allow clubs to authentically grow these facets, finding innovative ways to support players outside of the traditional full time models.
A common critique of Rugby Canada policy is that they are too BC centric, and the option for a player to develop their game from those from other provinces already involves heading to BC for the traditional pathways. Is this not just another BC centric option which leaves the rest of the country behind? It is a good point, but if the conversation is about developing the grassroots game in Canada, community rugby in BC currently sits as the lowest hanging fruit. The climate allows for an almost year round to be played, which improves the chances of producing talent as players can get the maximum game time. Furthermore, Rugby in BC exists in the public consciousness more than any of other provinces in the country. If rugby is going to attract more eyeballs to the game, BC is the best place to start. It is clear that having only one region where elite competition takes place is not an ideal system for consistently producing players who can compete on the global scale. However, authentic growth in the pathways offered by the club game would benefit clubs in leagues outside of the province as youngsters in their region start to see the game flourishing in the country and are motivated to take up the game.
Many people are working incredibly hard across the country to create high performance pathways in their own region. The growth and expansion of the Coast-to-Coast cup, for example, is the result of the hard work of individuals who want to provide opportunities for the home grown talent in Eastern Canada. Improving the standard of the club game in the BC Premiership is not an ‘instead of’ policy and more of an ‘as well as’ the good work that others are putting in. Improving the pathways offered by clubs in BC allows holistic year-round opportunities for players to develop, building high performance rugby into their lifestyle and complimenting their ambitions in employment or education.
This take is simplified, and the reality of growing the standard and increasing the popularity of the club game is more complicated. However, it still may be worth a look. A good start would be an increased interest in the league from those who make the decisions at the top. Diverting resources to identification of the talent currently amongst the club game and supporting the clubs in developing talent could be a significant step in finding more varied high performance pathways for the national team. Long term, it would allow clubs to develop authentically and identify which models toward growth work best for them. For more talent to develop in Canada, there needs to be more varied and viable options for players with promise to reach the next level.The BC Premier League has significant potential, but it’s up to Canada’s decision-makers to determine whether they will invest in developing it.
That could’ve been written 25 years ago. The words echo those of the past two/three decades.
Nobody listened then – are they listening now?
Great article Monty, I hope someone is listening and starts to improve the promotion of the undeniable talent pool in the club game. Canadian Rugby needs more people with your qualifications, experience and energy.
Jim Philbrook
I enjoyed watching Monty play. To keep the Premier League and BC rugby strong we need to support public school rugby and club youth programs.
There is long history of lawyer/rugby players in BC so keep BC in mind.
This, exactly, the strength of rugby in BC was the reason we were top 10 in the world in 1991.