With the Pacific Nations’ Cup underway and the World Rugby Cup less than three months from now, we thought it would be a good time to get in touch with our Rugby Canada Captain, Tyler Ardron.
Tyler is a popular captain, having earned 18 caps in the Senior Men’s Team and another 6 as an under-20 player. He plays number 8 but can also play flanker and lock. He is only 24, but plays and leads with a maturity beyond his years.
He began his international career in September of 2013 with the Ospreys in Wales. He has been so popular there that at the end of the 2014/15 season he was named Players Player of the Year, an honour that Tyler says hasn’t “set in yet. As soon as I got it we started preparing for the semi-final and straight after that I was into the 7s.”
I asked Tyler a few questions about being Canada’s captain in a high-pressure World Cup year. He seems completely unphased by it, which bodes well for the leadership role he will need to call upon in the next few months.
To be honest, Tyler has 18 caps but he so quietly came to recognition for his hard work that it hadn’t felt like he’d been over at Ospreys two full years yet, but in fact he’s made such an impact both there and with the international team. When one looks at some of the other international captains, flying under the radar and quietly doing one’s job makes for the best leaders.
I asked Tyler how he felt in this, his second full year as captain, and whether or not he still feels that the learning curve has a wide arch. Typical of Ty’s maturity, he said that his first year was spent learning something new every day, and that he “came into my own near the end of the season.” Confidence, Ardron said, came to him going into his second year, but the learning curve hasn’t slowed down.
“As soon as I start to feel comfortable I know that means I just have to put a little stronger emphasis on another part of my game. The captaincy has been huge for me. I think my family are probably the ones that can take the most credit for it, but I am working at it every day. There are a lot of people that can be influenced by a captain’s decisions, so it’s something I never take lightly.”
With that, Tyler has learned from other great captains to add to what he brings to the role. He says: “being around a captain like Alun Wyn Jones every day, I have noticed that he is always leading by example. He rarely makes a mistake in training and that transfers through the entire team.” Ardron tries “to drive the standards as a captain,” which is obvious to Rugby Canada teammates and supporters in the way he conducts himself on – and off – the field.
Less than three months away from the world cup, our captain isn’t feeling any added pressure, which is a reassuring statement. He explains it in a way that only a captain can: “It is a role I am very comfortable with and enjoy. I think the most pressure we have is coming from within the camp, so we are just going to have to let the rugby do the talking now.” As captain, Ardron has to help the players navigate how they channel the pressure and energy in camp this summer, throughout the Pacific Nations Cup as well as leading up to World Cup in September. But he says, “I don’t think there is any [RWC] tension at the moment. We are very focused on the PNC and the world cup hasn’t been talked about too much.”
Along the lines of focusing first on the Pacific Nations Cup, I asked Ardron what he and the team hope to achieve out of the tournament. “We have our own goals that we have kept inside the camp, but obviously the results would be nice. We want to win every game. Having lost the first one [against Japan, final score 20-6], we are not down on ourselves. There are a lot of things we are doing very well and with a bit more time together we will be very exciting.”
No one can deny that when Canada has time to gel together as a team, they are very exciting to watch. Wins out of the Pacific Nations Cup would be great, but the ability to work out the kinks as a team is even more beneficial. It’s a busy summer for Tyler Ardron and the Rugby Canada boys. I asked what a ‘day in the life of Tyler’ looks like this summer. Ardron answered: “The days have all been pretty unique so far. I had some great time off with family and friends. That was mainly spent on the lake or the golf course, with some time reliving my childhood shooting guns and driving the 3 and 4wheeler around.”
Aside from all the traveling, playing, training, and press ‘chores’ that a captain and players have to do, the boys will also get to ‘turn off’ a bit before heading to England for World Cup. “We have some down time planned. Some of it will be time off where we are home with our families. But we have also set some time aside where we are going to stay together without any rugby balls or grass and have some fun.”
As far as goals for World Cup and beyond, Ardron is coy, hesitating to say more than what the he and the team wish for is “to represent Canada to the best of our ability,” and that with the Ospreys, Ardron hopes to get better every day, as he obviously has been the last two seasons.
Tyler Ardron is an especially intuitive person, who when asked what kind of difference the support of his fans and fellow Canadians makes, gets a little philosophical. “It’s huge. A spot like rugby can be so emotional at times. When you have the support of thousands of people it can make the difference between going into that dark place and pushing through your next job. It is also tough for other teams coming to Canada. As we build pressure, the crowd adds to it and some teams can start to tighten up — which is beneficial for us.”
Tyler agrees with me that the more we talk up rugby in Canada, the more we get the word out, the more we engage the grass-roots levels, the better for the sport of rugby coast to coast.
My favourite thing to say (you’ve read it before!) is that rugby is indeed growing here in Canada, and that we are in the midst of some exciting times for the game here at home. With players like Tyler Ardron on that field and representing his country and his sport, the sport can only gain in popularity.
As more people join that #RedNation, let’s stand up and show our team and their captain that we’re behind them all the way.
They’re great ambassadors; they deserve it.
Main Photo: WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND – FEBRUARY 01: Tyler Ardron of Canada scores a try against Wales during the 2013 Wellington Sevens at Westpac Stadium on February 1, 2013 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
