Canadian Internationals Ryan Smith and Justin Mensah-Coker retire.

[LittleGuy]

Although the news won't come as a shock to followers of the Canadian national team, 32 year old Ryan Smith(Usually features at Centre) has decided to formalize his retirement with an announcment that came yesterday, this will apply to all levels of rugby so he will not be returning to captain the Wolf Pack next season. Ryan's club stops include Southland, and Montauban as well as being the captain of the Prairie Wolf Pack in the CRC. The following article by Rugby Canada gives a good overview of his career.

http://www.rugbycanada.ca/leagues/newsletter.cfm?clientID=3817&leagueID=0&page=57509

On a personal note, Smith has long been a divisive player amongst Canadian fans, but I think he finished his career on a high note as he was forced into the starting lineup due to no other players rising to the occasion and acquitted himself fairly well in the RWC, including a try against France and some solid work against Tonga.

Smith retires with 51 caps and 45 points scored for Canada.

Nice try by Ryan Smith starting at the 1:20 mark




As well Justin Mensah Coker has retired from both 15's and 7's play. Justin did not get a spot in the RWC team but had featured in the last Churchill Cup squad the rise of some talented youngsters in the back left him too far back on the depth chart. Also an effective 7's player it is slightly more surprising that he didn't try to continue here, but perhaps work commitments or other reasons factor into this choice.

Many Canadian fans will consider Mensah-Coker as a player who never quite broke out to where we thought he could be, especially from a defensive perspective. Still JMC had a career that he can be proud of with club stops in SC Albi(France), Plymouth Albion and Moseley in England as well as making it to the 2007 RWC and consistent Churchill Cup appearances as well as an exciting 7's career.

Mensah Coker retires with 26 caps and 35 points for Canada.

Justin starting a nifty try move at 1:40 in this video




Lastly primarily 7's player but also capped 15's player Mitch Gudgeon has called it a day. A solid player in the last few 7's campaigns for Canada, we wish him well in future endeavours. As well Mitch received two caps against Belgium and Russia in the last 13 months for the 15's side at #8.

Gudgeon retires with 2 caps for Canada.

Interview with Mitch from a couple of seasons back.

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

Good luck to them with whatever they chose to do next. I remember Mensah-Coker being a pretty handy winger if he got some space in the past, although I wasn't sure what became of his come the RWC.

 

[LittleGuy]

I haven't been able to fully confirm this but it looks like Canadian captain Pat Riordan(Hooker) may have hung up his boots, he has retired from the CDI Premier League in British Columbia, so I'm almost positive that means his international career is over as well. This isn't very surprising as Pat came off the field relatively early in most of the last year's games, and Ryan Hamilton showed massive improvement in his role off the bench.

With Riordan and Smyth out of the picture, I would say that Ander Monro is the heavy favourite to be the captain of the Canadian National team, although his Edness and Pritchard might recieve consideration or the vice-captain duties.

 

[formerlyfastwing]

Edness .......might recieve consideration or the vice-captain duties.

Booourns

 

[LittleGuy]

Booourns

Thinking about it since I posted I would actually be surprised, since his work schedule keeps him out of some matches, maybe in an emergency at most. After Ander as Captain I'm not sure who would fit in as vice-captain, Pritchard would be a good choice from a purely rugby perspective although I think him being the least connected to Canada of any of the players might dissuade his selection. Cudmore has serious discipline issues, most of the other players don't really fit the captains profile. I'm thinking maybe Aaron Carpenter might be a good fit though.

 

[CDN_Rugby]

If I'm choosing the next captain, I don't see how it can be anybody but Kleeberger. Fantastic guy off and on the pitch.

As far as VC goes, Monro will probably retain it but it's hard to argue against giving it to DTH (who could very well go down as the best Canadian outside of Gareth Rees). Either way, it's nice to see a number of players who could be in the mix.