Canadian Rugby Tough Guys "A Vanishing Breed"

[Canadian_Rugger]

I recently watched a video called A Vanishing Breed Canadian Rugby "Tough Guys" and with many people in Canada questioning how we have fallen behind other teams in world rugby I think we need to take a look at what sort of players we are producing. Canadian rugby has often been characterized as slightly unskilled but hard-nosed in its approach. Players of the game, at least for clubs I have played for, are often rough around the edges in certain cases. In School rugby the teams that usually produce the best results are from schools that draw from big farm boys, or rougher parts of the town. In kingston ON the two best schools in the school league are a rural school who draws from the farming community of Napanee while the other school which regularly produces top players draws from the roughest and poorest part of town. The same can be said in other parts of the country. In NB the small farming community of Belleisle in Southern NB regularly wins the high school championship against school with five or six times the population. Chauncey O'Toole was produced out of this high school system and he is going to most likely be signed by a European club after the world cup.

I think a major problem with Canadian rugby is we no longer see a lot of value in recruiting kids from these areas. Hardly ever do any of these schools get a look at by provincial unions who in reality are the ones doing the scouting at the lowest level. As a result the game passes many of these talented kids by. If Chauncey O'Toole had not moved to Newfoundland and played for the Rock he would never have been discovered. Chauncey O'Toole and Jebb Sinclair (A Player who just signed for London Irish) are both from small town NB and had they not moved away to play the game or been discovered by The Rock rugby program they would have been undiscovered.

Many of Canada's best internationals have been from small towns in Canada, prime breeding grounds of hearty stock and big, strong, physical youth who unfortunately in today's money infused game are being passed over for the rich private school boys. Who while they may play for bigger schools with more money do not possess the physical gifts some of these farm boys from small towns possess.

Dan Baugh, Rod Snow, Mike James, Norm Hadley, Al Charron. Canada used to possess a wealth of big strong hard-men playing the game which shaped the way we played. Teams used to play Canada and while they may ultimately have one we battled them and battled them hard. I don't see that sort of fighting spirit anymore and I think it says something about what is wrong with our scouting and recruiting system in Canada.

These are the types of gusy we used to recruit to play rugby

But now we recruit these guys!

I think Jamie Cudmore is a wicked rugby players, I know a lot of people think he is dirty and a thug but I think he represents what Canadian Rugby is all about and if we only had 15 of him on the pitch at once we would get back to our roots. This is just a rant of mine.

 

[big ginger 8]

Look at rugby nowadays while you still have to be physical, skill is much more important.

 

[Conal]

sad times if true
however there is a balance to strike if the "hard lads" arnt getting noticed it could be about their skill level
mabey the cru should be looking at funding coaching in these areas

as i wouldnt like a team full of skillful pansys or a team filled with just knuckleheads need to find the balance

 

[Shaggy]

I guess there are also other sports that attract players away from rugby ... Hockey (Ice) is almost a religion here, and Canadian football also probably draws away a lot of the big guys.

Funding and the sheer amount of travel that younger players have to do, probably discourage players, and make it an expensive sport.

The fact that BC have their season in winter, and the rest of Canada have their season in summer, also make the sport harder to coordinate.

I think if more money is found, the player numbers will increase, and more players will be retained - we will start to see big, hard, skillful players emerge

 

[LittleGuy]

I do wish we could get some bigger bodies in the front three although improvement at Prop is slowly happening, Riordan and Hamilton are severly undersized Hookers. I think the game is changing and Crowley knows this, there have been some growing pains in adopting a more run and gun style(the Japan tour in 09 being the worst example).

I know at the last RWC we were mocked by a lot of the analysts for playing 1970's rugby, I know in one match the commentator just announced during the middle of the game, "This is painful stuff from Canada, this is rugby two decades out of date, and it is putting the crowd to sleep."

Edit: The CRC starts today guys if you didn't catch it in the club section, I posted information on the first two games, Rugby Canada has a link to the broadcast of the Blues versus the Wolf Pack.