Utah Warriors Announce They are Suspending Club Operations: MLR Down from 11 Team to 6 Teams for 2026
Utah Warriors announced they are ceasing operations for the upcoming MLR season, that leaves 6 teams remaining from the 11 that competed in 2025. The future of the league looks to be on shaky ground.
The concern from Canada is how that will affect Canadian players, they were already impacted by the announcement earlier by MLR that imports would be limited on teams in 2026 and for the first time Canadian players would be counted as imports. The reduced opportunities to play professional rugby have taken another hit.
The MLR has been a win/lose situation for Canada. It comprised the core of the national team for the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, Canada barely got in the 2019 World Cup through the repechage and missed out on the 2023 World Cup. The MLR just wasn’t a high enough level of professional rugby to guarantee World Cup qualification. The USA is finding that out as well as they missed the 2023 World Cup and their recent 85-0 loss to Scotland shows that MLR rugby isn’t sufficient as a national team selection tool.
The advent of MLR actually scuppered plans Rugby Canada had for the “Rugby Canada Centralised Program (RCCP)”. In the summer of 2017 after Canada lost to USA in the 2019 RWC qualification series, Rugby Canada did a review of the men’s XVs program, they concluded they needed to get rid of the coach (Mark Anscombe), look for a new coach, hire a High Performance Director and put extra resources into the RCCP. The plan looked good but Rugby Canada butchered the implementation of it, they hired Kingsley Jones instead of Francois Ratier as head coach, they hired Francois as the RCCP coach, then cancelled the RCCP program when it was obvious the players would be going to the new MLR, they then set Francois adrift with no program to coach. It was typical Rugby Canada incompetence but MLR rising in 2018 to overshadow the RCCP was beyond their control.
We’ve posted articles below to document the history: the recent Utah social media post; the Canadian Press article on Utah; the BCRN articles from 2017-18 documenting the Rugby Canada plan, the hiring of Francois Ratier as coach of RCCP, the movement of players from RCCP to MLR, how MLR impacted RCCP, the leaving of Francois Ratier.
The 2017 plan had some good points, it wasn’t implemented well. With MLR fading as an option for Canadian players is it worth revisiting the concept of the RCCP, the Centralized Program? There was a push to put more resources into it, presumably to pay players a modest stipend while training centrally. Rugby Canada did resurrect the Pacific Pride program in 2019 for U23 players, is it an option to expand on that with more resources?
The BC Premier offers an option to play at a good level during the winter months, if elite players are afforded the opportunity of training full time by being contracted it may provide a solution to prepare for RWC 2027. The solution could look something like this, a Canada ‘A’ tour to Seattle and California in January to play the MLR teams in training. BC Premier club rugby from February to May. June camps for July tests. Pacific Nations Cup in August and September. Back to club rugby in October and prepare for November tests. It’s making use of existing structures, a U23 centralized program, a centralized training centre, a winter league located around the training centre.
Ideally Canadian players would be getting contracts in Tier 1 countries and playing either top level or level 2 there but as a country with limited resources for rugby, it’s also time to be practical and work with what we have. With the Blue Jays and baseball on people’s mind recently, maybe the metaphor is it’s great to hit a home run, but you need to get players on base first. Put players in positions to get advanced by future actions, centralizing players as was the plan pre-MLR is worth reconsidering.
THANK YOU WARRIORS NATION.
Up until just days ago, the Utah Warriors were committed and on track to participate in the 2026 Major League Rugby season. Unfortunately, things changed quickly in the past week.
As of this morning, we have informed Major League Rugby that we will not participate in 2026 and are suspending club operations.
For our season ticket holders, your tickets will be refunded in the coming days. We are actively working with SeatGeek to have this completed within a week back to your card. If you don’t see that, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us on our box office line: 801-477-7652 or via email at ticketing@warriorsrugby.com.
In the coming days, we will share how our support for the game will continue and how you can support the incredible rugby community that will carry on the rich and storied legacy of rugby in Utah.
Once A Warrior, always a Warrior.
Major League Rugby down to six franchises as Utah Warriors close shop
The Utah Warriors are the latest team to pull out of Major League Rugby, leaving the U.S. pro circuit with just six teams.
Utah had been one of the league’s original franchises dating back to its inaugural 2018 season.
Major League Rugby featured 11 teams last season but is now reduced to six: the defending champion New England Freejacks, Old Glory DC, Seattle Seawolves, Chicago Hounds, Charlotte-based Anthem RC and California Legion.
The Warriors join the Houston SaberCats, Miami Sharks and NOLA Gold in suspending operations ahead of the 2026 season. In July, the San Diego Legion and Rugby Football Club Los Angeles (RFC LA) announced they would join forces and compete in the league next season as the California Legion.
The downsizing is bad news for Canadian players.
Canadians Emerson Prior, Tyler Wong, Sam Reimer, Gabe Casey and Nic Benn were on the Warriors roster last season.
“Up until just days ago, the Utah Warriors were committed and on track to participate in the 2026 Major League Rugby season. Unfortunately things changes quickly in the past week,” Utah chief executive officer and co-founder Kimball Kjar said in an open letter Tuesday. “As of this morning, we have informed Major League Rugby that we will not participate in 2026 and are suspending club operations.”
He did not detail what had changed but had been on the record on the club’s need for additional investment.
Kjar, a former U.S. international, did offer some hope for the future.
“This isn’t the end for rugby in Utah and when that time comes to welcome professional rugby back to our great state, I look forward to standing next to our entire Warriors Nation family to cheer our team, our Warriors,” he wrote.
Utah finished atop the Western Conference last season at 11-5-0, defeating Seattle 23-21 in playoff semifinal play before falling 33-19 to Houston in the conference final.
The Toronto Arrows, the lone Canadian entry in the league, folded in November 2023 after the death of principal owner Bill Webb.
ARTICLES FROM BCRN 2017-2018
This Weekend It’s About Sevens: But A Quick Word About XVs – Centralized Program Takes a Hit
BCRN – March 8 2018
Vancouver is alight with 7s energy this week. Great showcase for the event at BC Place, USA won their tournament, can Canada win theirs this weekend. One can dream. Canada did win a World Series tournament last year at Singapore, a first for the men in red. McGrath’s men are doing OK on the circuit, middle of the pack, well lower middle of the pack in 11th with the 15th place team getting relegated. How do you say bye in Russian? Russia at 9 points are looking close to a sure thing. Olympic qualification will be on everyone’s mind soon, top 4 teams in next year’s series get automatic qualification. This is where we hope USA are very good or very bad. If they finish top 4 next season, we should qualify very easily in the regionals. If they don’t then hopefully they’ll be very off form as it will be Canada v USA in the Olympic qualification regionals. But let’s talk XVs for now.
The centralized program took a hit this week with Francois Ratier resigning, stepping down, whatever euphemism you want to use. He’s back in Quebec now considering his future. That doesn’t sit well with me. He should have been given the head coach position as soon as Crowley left, a proven performer with the men’s and women’s national teams. Instead he was offered half a job as centralized coach, a job that never really materialized, a program that never really materialized. It really annoys me to see quality rugby people treated like that.
So where from here, the team is looking mediocre coming out of the ARC and going into an 8 month stretch before they play in the repechage and have to face Romania, the most likely outcome, and two other teams for the last World Cup spot. So what’s the plan, that’s a rhetorical question, I’m not sure if anyone has the answer, especially Rugby Canada. Once the lustre of this 7s weekend wears off, it’s a question that needs to be asked a lot, and hopefully some answers will be forthcoming.
Let’s start with the centralized program, some say it will evolve, some say it will dissolve. It brings up the MLR as well, it could be argued that the coming of the MLR impacted the centralized program. The Seattle Seawolves team have added a number of Canadian development players, it’s good they’re being developed in a professional environment (we assume) but has it made the centralized program redundant. If Vancouver and Toronto get franchises in 2019, will it be a fait accompli?
Let’s talk MLR a bit, actually USMLR if you look at the branding. I’m starting to question how committed they are in expanding into Canada. There are plenty of eager USA metropolitan areas, the MLR folks basically drooled when New York came on board and it’s the top story on their official website. Also a lot of verbiage on how they’re going to make American rugby great, not much on Canada. If you look at their About Us page there are 10 references to America, 0 references to Canada or North America. Just saying maybe we should be looking at a Plan B, just in case. Is a Canadian league worth (re)considering? The Ontario Arrows tied the Houston Sabercats, the UBCOB Ravens defeated the Houston Sabercats. We have good teams north of the border.
When the Vancouver Island team were ready to take on the Seattle Seawolves, there was a buzz in the Island rugby community, 32 elite players showed up to make the team, Westhills Stadium was booked and my gut says there would have been a crowd of about 2,000 there based on community reaction. I still feel one of the reasons Seattle pulled the plug is that without their foreign players and national team players available they would have lost the match and when they realized that they acted quickly without consultation to cancel. So be it but it made people view the USMLR with a bit more skepticism, at least from a Canadian vantage point.
Still it is a shiny object and we can’t stop looking, we’re eager to see how year one goes and the Ontario Arrows are getting fully stuck in with exhibition matches. The top BC Premier sides, which are at the same level, a point proven by the Ravens, are still looking for opportunities to get involved, at least at the exhibition match level.
There was the story this week of a Canadian Club championship starting this year, that was good news. So where to from here? The crystal ball is a little hazy to tell the truth. Let’s see what unfolds in the MLR this season but let’s also consider options, just in case.
For me it’s still, “Bring Back the Pride” in more ways than one. I see a T-Shirt in the making.
Seattle Seawolves First Exhibition Match vs Vancouver Island Selects Side on Feb 11th
BCRN – January 21 2018
The Seattle Seawolves officially head into camp on Monday, the 22nd, expecting a full roster of players. Curry Hitchborn the Director of Rugby Development didn’t say exactly how many that was but I would expect 30+ players to be in the mix.
They’ve also indicated their first exhibition match will be Feb 11th against a Vancouver Island selects side.
Vancouver Island have two regional teams the Tide (south island) and Tsunami (north island) representing nine clubs on the island. They usually only play a couple of games a year in May when the club season is over. They compete for the McKechnie Cup – that’s the trophy for best region in the Province, last year won by the Vancouver region. The nine clubs on Vancouver Island are James Bay, Castaway Wanderers, University of Victoria, Westshore, Cowichan, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Comox and Campbell River. Since it is mid-season for the clubs it will take some scrambling to put a select side together for the Feb 11th date, which is a bye week in the BC Premier. The select team will likely have representation from 7 of the clubs as Campbell River is a junior club and Comox a 3rd division club. The five BC Premier clubs CW, JBAA, UVic, Westshore and Nanaimo will probably provide the bulk of the players.
It will be a good test for the Seawolves and represent two teams without a lot of together preparation which will test the ability of the players rather than the systems. Extended squads will likely be allowed in order to evaluate as many players as possible. Vancouver Island fans will get a first glance at the new pro team in the region and many of the faces will be familiar, there are already 10+ BC Premier players in the Seattle roster and we haven’t seen the complete extended roster yet.
The player pool for the Island will be tested as Canada will be playing USA that weekend in California which will take a number of players out of contention. UVic are on reading break so some of their out of province players might be away. There’s a 7s tournament at VIU in Nanaimo on the Saturday. The Island may have to call in some Mainland players for depth at certain key positions.
Curry Hitchborn has already been named as the Director of Rugby for the 2019 Vancouver franchise, when we asked him if he’s thinking that far ahead and evaluating opposition players already, he had this to say, “Absolutely. No question. We have an amazing amount of talent here in the PNW and at this stage, to not acknowledge the merit of our domestic club competition would be insanity. It’s plain as day.”
The Seawolves are planning two more exhibition matches after this but no details on who those would be against at this time.
Details on time and venue are to be announced in the coming week but Feb 11th is the date on the Island. If you are interested in being considered for the Vancouver Island team you should contact John Lyall at johnlyall4@gmail.com It will be by invitation but an extended squad of about 28 will need to be assembled with an expectation of one mid-week practice before the match and perhaps a Saturday captain’s run. High profile coaches like national U20 coach Jeff Williams and Centralized Program coach Francois Ratier are expected to be present.
George Barton Signs With Seattle Seawolves
BCRN – October 26 2017
The Rugby Canada centralized program is quickly finding its top players decentralized throughout the MLR. George Barton is the latest but not the last to move to an MLR contract.
We talked to George back on January 1st 2016 when he was 18. His goals were to be capped for Canada and to get a pro contract. He already has two caps for Canada and although not getting a pro contract in Europe he’s got a pro contract with Seattle now signed. He’s achieving the goals he set for himself.
In the interview when he reflected on the change from BC to Clermont Academy it wasn’t the physicality but the speed of the game he had to adapt to most. Also the daily training regimen was new coming from an amateur environment. He was always the biggest at his age grade so when he played senior the one tip he had for young players was, “learn to tackle low”.
INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE BARTON JAN 1st 2016
We wish George all the best with Seattle Seawolves.
from Seattle Sealwolves
Seattle, October 26, 2017: The Seattle Seawolves and Head Coach Tony Healy are proud to announce the signing of former Canadian U20 Captain George Barton. “George has the hallmarks of a rugby player possessing the potential to become world-class. Even though he is young, he has already benefitted from playing alongside internationally recognized players in Canada and France,” Healy said. “The level of the players around him, as well as the quality of competition in this exciting MLR season, will challenge him to take his game to the next level. We are looking forward to seeing George’s impact on the Seawolves’ success.”
The Duncan, B.C. native comes to Seattle after spending two years playing in France’s Top 14 with ASM Clermont-Ferrand rugby club. “I’m very excited to be joining the Seawolves and for the growth it will bring to Rugby in North America,” said Barton.
Barton has distinguished himself as one of Canada’s top prospects as a two-year member of their U20 national team. At just 20 years of age, Barton stands at 6’0”, 230 lbs. and has highlighted his career as a versatile player, exhibiting exceptional speed combined with physical play.
Barton solidified his status as one of the best up and coming players in North America by scoring his first international try in a match against Chile this past February. He earned his second cap and second international try with the Canadian Senior team later that month against the United States. Barton’s father and older brother also played for Canada.
We are proud to welcome George Barton to the Seawolves family.
More About the Seawolves:
The Seawolves are proud to be Seattle’s Major League Rugby franchise. With an ownership group led by Seattle-based entrepreneurs Adrian Balfour and Shane Skinner, the club was formed in 2017 and is a founding member of Major League Rugby. The inaugural season kicks off in Spring 2018 and the team’s home games will be played at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, Washington.
The Seawolves organization strives to develop, cultivate and expand the sport of rugby in the US while empowering discipline, duty, respect and a spirit of inclusion both on and off the pitch. The Seattle Seawolves aim to foster a winning culture by enabling its members to meet their true potential while pursuing excellence within the Major League Rugby competition. Community outreach is a key tenant of the Seawolves philosophy, and our organization strives to continually help to enrich and give back to the greater Seattle and Pacific Northwest areas.
Rugby Canada Centralized Player List for XVs
BCRN – October 23 2017
If you’ve been wondering who is on the Rugby Canada centralized team then read on. The list is below and as far as we can tell here is the club breakdown based on where a player has played this fall season – 8 JBAA, 5 CW, 4 Westshore, 3 UVic, 1 Meraloma, 1 Ravens, 1 Unattached.
The Bays have the most at 8 but some have only played one match. CW have the next highest level at 5 followed by Westshore at 4 and UVic 3. Then there are the one offs, Brock Staller suited up for Lomas one game, Karsten Leitner is Ravens and George Barton still recovering from injury hasn’t played since the U20 tour. He should be back ready to go by the November matches and in the running for the senior Canada squad.
Some of the players have already announced MLR signings for January including Phil Mack, Eric Howard and Ray Barkwill, expect a few more names to be added to that list before the end of the year.
There’s likely to be a certain amount of turnover in the group in the new year as some get MLR contracts and new coach Francois Ratier gets better acquainted with the talent available to him across Canada.
Ray Barkwill (CW)
George Barton (Unattached, Cowichan)
Luke Campbell (James Bay)
Liam Chisholm (CW)
Guiseppe du Toit (UVic)
Dustin Dobravsky (CW)
Andrew Ferguson (Westshore)
Eric Howard (Westshore)
Brett Johnson (CW)
Cole Keith (James Bay)
Conor Keys (UVic)
Ryan Kotlewski (Westshore)
Karsten Leitner (UBCOB Ravens)
Travis Larsen (James Bay)
Phil Mack (James Bay)
Aidan McMullan (UVic)
Liam Murray (James Bay, Langley)
Mike Nieuwenhuysen (James Bay)
Patrick Parfrey (James Bay)
Nakai Penny (Westshore)
Robbie Povey (CW)
Lucas Rumball (James Bay)
Brock Staller (Meraloma)
Ratier to Relocate to Victoria to Take Over the Centralized Program
BCRN – September 11 2017
We knew about the move last week but were told to keep it under wraps until Rugby Canada released the story. That hasn’t happened yet but Americas Rugby News released it today so the cats out of the bag, or at least a rugby ball has tumbled out.
It’s good news for the men’s program as Francois has proven himself a competent rugby mind who understands the Canadian system. He came in to rescue the men’s program when Crowley left and coached the men’s team to a respectable finish in the Americas Rugby Championship two years ago. He’ll report to the head coach when that position is filled, so he comes out west not knowing the complete picture yet. He’ll be working with the current assistant coaches Mike Shelley and Graeme Moffatt as they’ve been responsible for identifying the current crop of centralized players, Ratier as yet has had no input on that as he was the women’s head coach just a few weeks ago.
It will be interesting to see the program mature under his direction. Currently looking in from the outside it looks to be a program in name only with sparse details on who is in the program, what it’s short term goals are, and how it will operate. He arrives next week in Victoria to begin the task of moulding it into something tanglible and effective.
One interesting insight into the man is he has a picture of Don Quixote as the backdrop to his Twitter account, when queried on that he replied, “I like the desperate hero”. That seems fitting when considering the task ahead and the current state of the men’s program.
While researching what the message of Don Quixote means to people, I found one outpouring that supporters of the Canadian men’s XVs program may relate to: “Now that I’m older, the message of Don Quixote’s story, of dreaming the impossible dream and making that perilous, hopeless quest against all the disbelief, is so much more powerful. Now I cry every time!?”. It sounds like many Canadian rugby fans these days, older ones shedding internal tears for the days when Canadian men’s rugby was a proud force in world rugby. Hopefully Francois’ quest will bring hope again, we wish him all the best for success.
Rugby Canada Releases Details of Men’s XVs Plan
BCRN – August 4th 2017
Rugby Canada released details and recommendations following the review of the National Men’s 15s Program following the June 2017 International Series.
Rugby Canada’s National Men’s 15s team failed to qualify in the Americas 1 position for the 2019 Men’s Rugby World Cup after losing a home and away series against USA. The team will now face Uruguay in a home and away series in late January and February, 2018 to qualify in the Americas 2 position.
“I would like to thank Jim Dixon, General Manager Rugby Operations and Performance, and the High Performance Advisory Group for conducting a diligent and professional review process. Their insight, experience and perspective has provided a set of clear and decisive recommendations for Rugby Canada’s Board of Directors and Senior Management to consider,” stated Allen Vansen, CEO.
“Men’s 15s Rugby has and will continue to be an essential part of Rugby Canada’s community, one that contributes significantly to the overall programming and related success of our sport and National Teams – we cannot ignore its importance. We must ensure that appropriate resources are strategically allocated to the program at the appropriate time. We identified a number of challenges following the RWC2015 review – these require both Rugby Canada and its passionate community taking steps to deliver long-term success. The solution does not rest with one individual or one initiative; it requires significant and ongoing improvements on many fronts,” noted Jim Dixon, General Manager Rugby Operations and Performance.
“Whilst I am deeply disappointed to see a critical Rugby Canada high performance program underperforming, I am confident the recommendations and associated solutions will bring swift, positive change in the short-term, and compliment the long-term strategies in place,” Dixon stated.
“Our National Men’s 15s program is a critical National program and qualifying for the 2019 Men’s Rugby World Cup is the organizations number one priority. Rugby Canada will begin implementing these recommendations immediately, building upon the sound set of recommendations and actions taken after the 2015 Men’s Rugby World Cup,” stated Tim Powers, Chairman of the Board.
The following provides an overview of the process and the recommendations following the National Men’s 15s Leadership and Program Review.
Background
Rugby Canada’s Board of Directors and CEO tasked a review committee of internal and external experts, familiar with the high performance Rugby landscape in Canada and World Rugby best practice, to make recommendations regarding leadership of the National Men’s 15s program and any critical programming changes that will positively impact the performance of the team.
The following members of the Rugby Canada Men’s High Performance Advisory Group were tasked to undertake the review over the course of the past four weeks;
Tyler Hotson (Rugby Canada board member – Men’s Player Representative)
Mike McGovern (High Performance Advisor, World Rugby)
Dr. Pat Parfrey (RC’s World Rugby Council representative, and former national team coach)
Mike Schmid (Former Canadian international and long-time professional coach in the UK)
Gordon Sneddon (Chairman of the Canadian Rugby Championship and former RC board member)
Jim Dixon (RC General Manager, Rugby Operations and Performance)
To guide the review committee in its mandate, the following critical factors were provided to the review committee to take into consideration:
Program leadership: what’s critical to achieving short and long-term success;
Timelines: when can strategies be introduced so as to ensure there is no detrimental effect on the program’s success, most notably in the short-term;
Budgets: Rugby Canada’s limited resources and recommendations must be cognizant of that;
Landscape: what is the reality we are faced with in regards to domestic scope for growth and improvement in the immediate future.
As part of the review process a comprehensive set of methods were utilized to gather critical, relevant information relating to the program’s performance, and the evaluation of the program leadership and players:
- Individual confidential 360-degree player and staff feedback surveys;
- Surveys covered personal performance, performance scoring of staff/colleagues, areas for improving the program’s performance, factors that led to an unsuccessful outcome in the RWCQ games v USA;
- Program leadership and staff reports from technical, strength & conditioning and medical staff utilizing a SWOT analysis of department responsibilities in relation to the program, and self-assessed personal performance review;
- Including a comprehensive report from Head Coach, Mark Anscombe;
Senior players committee leadership teleconference with Tyler Hotson, RC Men’s Player Representative to the Board of Directors; - Independent senior Men’s 15s player calls with Mike McGovern, High Performance Advisor, World Rugby;
- HP Advisory Group meetings to review all reports, meet with Head Coach, Mark Anscombe and provide recommendations to senior management.
Advisory Group Recommendations
Following a very comprehensive review process, the following eight (8) recommendations have been brought forward by the advisory group.
Below each recommendation, in italics, are the actions that have been or are being implemented by Rugby Canada’s Board of Directors & senior management.
Recommendation No. 1
The RC Board of Directors are strongly encouraged to make a public and internal statement outlining that the National Men’s 15s program is a priority and mandate to senior management that resources (players and financial) should be prioritized to ensure a successful qualification campaign and Men’s 2019 Rugby World Cup.
ACTION: Rugby Canada’s Board of Directors confirmed that the National Men’s 15s program is a critical priority program for the organization, whereas the success of the program provides funding for all of Rugby Canada’s National Teams, High Performance and Development programs.
The Board has provided unanimous direction to senior management to implement the recommendations of the High Performance Advisory Group and to prioritize resource allocations to the Men’s 15s program to ensure a successful Americas 2 qualification and Men’s 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Recommendation No. 2
Enhanced, internally focussed leadership capacity is needed for the Rugby department. A full-time High Performance Director – 15s, overseeing the National Men’s 15s team, Rugby Canada Centralized Program, 15s age-grade and pathway, as well as oversee Women’s 15s HP programs.
ACTION: Position description and advertisement have been approved for recruitment of this position ASAP.
Recommendation No. 3
The Rugby Canada Centralised Program (RCCP) must be enhanced with greater coaching/staff and resource capacity, and a greater number of players for the program allowing them to train and play appropriately.
ACTION: Planning meetings have commenced to identify the players for this group, focusing on those that will most likely feature in the October ‘A’ tour, November and January/February Test windows. A group of 26-28 centralised players, plus targeted additions in specific windows of time, most notably March – June will be invited to join the RCCP for September, 2017.
Recommendation No. 4
A full-time Men’s 15s coach, based at Rugby Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Langford, in addition to the Men’s 15s Head Coach, is hired to ensure there is greater attention placed on the Rugby Canada Centralized Program players in the daily training environment.
ACTION: This positon will be the National Academy Head Coach and will coach Canada ‘A’, the Rugby Canada Centralised Program and be a National Senior Men’s 15s team assistant coach.
In addition, Mike Shelley will continue as the RCCP Coordinator and coaching assistant in the increased capacity implemented in April 2017.
Recommendation No. 5
Ensure the best players are available to support the Americas 2 qualification matches versus Uruguay – be they 7s or 15s ‘carded’ at present.
ACTION: Men’s 15s and 7s program coaching staff will meet to review all players for potential selection for the Men’s 15s roster. One-to-one meetings to be conducted with targeted identified 7s players to ensure appropriate player welfare management.
Discussions will be initiated with foreign-based player’s clubs for negotiation of players release for the two qualification matches versus Uruguay.
Recommendation No. 6
The program needs to seek the professional assistance of a qualified and experienced sport psychologist to work with the program in the lead up to the RWC qualifiers.
ACTION: Request to be made to World Rugby for the services of a qualified sport psychologist on a consultant basis to work with the program, most notably in November 2017 and January/February 2018. Consideration for a resident Sport Psychologist will also be contemplated.
Recommendation No. 7
The National Men’s 15s program requires additional technical staff for critical windows – senior Forwards coach responsible for overall leadership of Forwards play (supported by Mike Shelley – Scrums), additional Backs coach proficient in international test Rugby. One of these people, and/or the Head Coach, need to be highly experienced as a Defence coach. This is an area of ongoing concern that needs consistent support and attention.
ACTION: Roles will be sourced to cover the period through the November 2017 tour, the January/February Uruguay matches and the Americas Rugby Championship. At that time an assessment will be made based on the skill-set and preference of the new Head Coach. The priority is to secure personnel who can support the team until RWC2019.
Recommendation No. 8
A change in the National Men’s 15s Head Coach position to be taken with immediate effect. An interim Head Coach is to be identified and put in place until the time a suitable full-time Head Coach can be hired.
ACTION: The National Men’s 15s Head Coach has been released from his position.
Recruitment of this position will be initiated ASAP, in conjunction with World Rugby.