Rugby in Canada is on a massive upswing, and has been for the last few years. This was certainly evident last year, with two sell out games at BMO Field in Toronto, against Ireland and the Maori All Blacks. This will likely be repeated when Canada takes on Scotland later this year. The Women’s Sevens team are showing serious strength and dominance in their series, and will likely be strong medal contenders in Rio. Likewise the Men’s teams are showing similar grit and determination, the 15’s already qualifying for Rugby World Cup 2015.
For a team to be strong, and remain strong, it needs good leadership. Part of this is ensuring the right people are in the right roles to assist in the growth of the team, and of the sport. One such individual is Mike Chu, General Manager of Rugby Operations and Performance. The Rugby Canada website describes this role as the person responsible for the direction and management of Rugby Canada’s international and domestic development and elite Rugby Programs. The primary challenge of this position is to improve Canada’s international success and status. This has been the task Mike has been undertaking since 2011, after being hired by Rugby Canada after a tenure with the rugby union from his home country, a little rugby nation called New Zealand.
Mike is currently back in New Zealand on leave, bringing his family home for the first time in two years. I was however very fortunate that Mike took time out of his holiday to have a chat with me about his role with Rugby Canada, and discuss the current and future directions Rugby Canada are looking to.
I asked Mike first off what prompted his move to Canada. Especially as prior to joining Rugby Canada, Mike worked with the High Performance team with the New Zealand Rugby Union for nine years, including coach and player development. “[Canada] was a great opportunity, it’s a good challenge to try and make a difference with a sport that’s growing. Rugby is on the up, and I [already] had a bit of an affiliation with Canada having done a year there at the University of Victoria some years ago. So it was a good opportunity, and a good challenge.”
In the time Mike has been with Rugby Canada a number of changes have occurred, from more resources being made available to better television coverage. “We’ve got quite a big growth in our support base. We now play a lot of our homes games at BMO Field in Toronto. 2011 was the first game we played at BMO, we’ve gone from crowds of 8,000 to the 2013 New Zealand Maori game selling out before the game even kicked off.” As Mike suggested, here in New Zealand this is something we take for granted, as the All Blacks represent a Tier 1 sport with full funding and television coverage. Canada however is experiencing huge growth now that national broadcaster TSN has begun showing Canada games. “We’ve also got some changes in our funding, our Men’s and Women’s Sevens teams are getting funding from the government through the ‘Own The Podium’ program. Own The Podium is a high performance arm of Sport Canada that was set up prior to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. They [Sport Canada] wanted to own the podium, they wanted to do well at their home Olympics and they wanted to cut out some of the bureaucracy in funding elite level sport. They fund teams they believe are going to do well at the Olympics, it’s purely Olympic funding. Both our Men’s and Women’s sevens teams [are being funded through this]. Our Women’s team came second in the World Cup, they came third in the world series, so our women’s team are a strong chance to be medallists at the Olympics. Our Men’s team are also a solid chance to be at the Olympics as well, with one spot left available.”
Looking at the impact television coverage has had on the game, I asked if this has helped their growth. “It has, now we need to convert that growth into more commercial revenue to maintain and continue that growth.”
“We’re also looking a lot more around the community game, that’s going to be a focus over the next few years. We’re wanting to grow our participation numbers, coaching numbers. Up until now Rugby Canada has been focused on the high performance side of the game, and the provinces have done the work at a community level. We want to do more at a community and grass roots level, provide resources and support to help grow the game.”
The question of the potential for a professional rugby series, and development of professional teams within Canada was also discussed, Mike saying “It [professional rugby] is something that has been talked about for a long time, a professional North American league. There’s been a number of discussions with the USA around the development of a professional league. At the end of the day it’s something that’s going to come down to funding, and television coverage. Commercially making it work. It’s certainly something we want to get to. A professional league would allow us to retain our players in Canada, and pay them a decent wage. If you look at the countries we’re competing against, the likes of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji for example, more than 90 per cent of their players play in a professional league somewhere in the world. The majority of our players are coming from a club rugby background. They play like professionals, but less than half our squad are playing in pro leagues.”
“We do now have a centralised training facility in Langford, BC. This allows us to train consistently using the same facilities. We can train six days a week, and given the climate in BC it’s easier to make sure that training happens. But again a lot of our guys drive four hours to get to this training, it’s just what they have to do.”
“We’ve had huge year, qualifying for the Rugby World Cup, and the successes with our various teams, it’s been a great year. The players make a huge number of sacrifices [to play], they often end up paying for the privilege but they have this huge sense of pride in playing for their country.”
Rugby in Canada will continue to grow. The players and management all appear united in their goals and directions, I am genuinely excited to see what the future holds for the #Rednation, and I look forward to joining the growing number of fans watching the teams as they strive for further excellence on the fields of battle. I’d like to thank Mike Chu for his time today, remember you can keep up with Rugby Canada here at their website and here at their Twitter feed. Tickets are already on sale for the Canada vs Scotland game at BMO later this year, and as I said, I would not be surprised if this is another sell out, so get in while you still can.
