World Cup showcases Canadian rugby’s potential — and its challenges

SAN FRANCISCO — Gareth Rees by no means would have imagined taking part in rugby at a spot like AT&T Park in San Francisco, which is why the Canadian Corridor of Famer  is cherishing each second of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. “We’d by no means had dreamt of strolling right into a baseball stadium and saying ‘we’ll play rugby on that subject for 3 days and have a good time,'” Rees mentioned. “These are the realities of the place we have come from in a really brief time frame.” “Our present athletes, they will stroll right into a major-league stadium, simply down the coast from the place they practice on Vancouver Island; I feel [that’s] unbelievable, and we have now to maintain appreciating that.” Rees has seemingly been concerned in each side of rugby each in Canada and internationally as a participant, coach, agent and even former CEO of Rugby Canada. The 51-year-old from Duncan, B.C., is at present the nationwide union’s director of economic and program relations and is working on the World Cup as a producer and commentator of World Rugby’s worldwide broadcast. He says Canada pulls greater than its weight in each males’s and girls’s sevens, however the penalties are evident with the present males’s 15s workforce. “On the sphere, we have got some challenges, and that is what November’s all about,” Rees mentioned, referring to the last-chance qualifying match Canada must win to succeed in the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. “We have made some strategic choices round sevens, [and] we’re paying the worth in 15s, there is no query.” Gareth Rees hopes Canadian rugby can persevere by way of its present challenges with humility and arduous work. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press) The significance of November’s repechage is echoed by Tim Powers, Rugby Canada’s board of administrators chairman. “We will not emphasize sufficient how essential it’s for rugby in Canada, not simply Rugby Canada,” Powers mentioned. “The funding hit and the repetitional hit can be vital — not that we will not overcome it —however we wish to get by way of it and be there.” ‘Optimistic, thrilling issues’ for Canada  ​Powers and present Rugby Canada CEO Allen Vansen are each in San Francisco for the match and noticed the Canadian males’s and girls’s groups fall out of title competition on Friday. “This weekend, Canadians perhaps aren’t as pleased with the outcomes which have come ahead, and our gamers actually aren’t,” Powers mentioned. “[But] there’s plenty of constructive, thrilling issues occurring in Canadian rugby. Quickly the outcomes will catch up.” Vansen factors to developmental academies in Toronto and Langford, B.C., as essential components of the nationwide groups’ future, together with the truth that the boys’s workforce has acquired some funding as of April. That is a significant enhance for a program that misplaced funding from Personal The Podium after failing to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics. “Efficiency, in sure phrases, it isn’t the place we wish to be,” Vansen mentioned. “This match is a superb instance, however actually we’ll proceed to search for that funding as we go ahead.” Past the outcomes on the pitch, Vansen and Powers emphasize the affect of the World Cup on Canadian rugby as a complete. “This can be a actually, actually vital match,” Vansen mentioned. “It is enormous for our sport, nice for bringing extra profile and actually good on their pathway to the Olympic Video games in 2020 [in Tokyo.]” Honesty, arduous work wanted The final 12 months have been rather a lot to digest for Canadian rugby followers. Along with the boys’s 15s ongoing try to succeed in the 2019 World Cup, the girls’s sevens workforce missed out on a World Rugby Sevens Collection’ general podium end for the primary time whereas the boys confirmed flashes of brilliance amidst an inconsistent marketing campaign. Powers sees the ladies’s inside transition as obligatory for the workforce’s evolution. “I feel ‘in transition’ signifies that you are generally going to have bumps on the street, that you just’re not going to dominate as you as soon as did as new gamers get their toes,” he mentioned. “You do not keep on high eternally with out transitioning.” Including to the Canadian rugby narrative is the appearance {of professional} rugby union, with the United States-based Main League Rugby reviewing the opportunity of admitting the Ontario Arrows to its ranks. Rees is aware of Invoice Webb, one of many Arrows’ co-founders. “I feel there’s some realities to professional rugby in North America, they’re precisely the identical as after I began taking part in professional rugby in ’96 in England,” Rees mentioned. “It will be robust initially, however I feel the Arrows have the precise proper thought to supply our gamers a possibility to play towards the most effective in North America.” “For me, it makes lots of sense.” Rees, left, possesses a prolonged rugby resume, together with 4 World Cup appearances with Canada’s 15s workforce. (Gabriel Bouys, File/AFP/Getty Photographs) As soon as the Rugby World Cup Sevens concludes, the nationwide union’s focus will return to the boys’s 15s workforce. Vansen mentioned that there could also be cross-pollination with members of the sevens program transferring over to bolster Canada’s ranks and Powers says the nationwide union is contemplating each potential possibility. “No stone is to be left unturned within the journey to qualify,” Powers mentioned. For Rees, the best way ahead by way of aggressive success and persevering with to develop the game require humility and persistence. “We simply need to preserve being trustworthy with ourselves and preserve working arduous,” Rees mentioned. “That is what Canadian rugby is all about.” https://www.cbc.ca/sports/rugby/rugby-world-cup-sevens-saturday-1.4756867?cmp=rss