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Former Canada captain Gareth Rees sat down with World Rugby to talk about some of his experiences from attending four World Cups as a player, to now acting as Manager for the national side as they head towards the 2015 tournament.
On 1987, taking part in the first ever World Cup at the age of 20:
“There were so many unknowns about it. Back then we didn’t know what we were getting into. We were in New Zealand where rugby is king, for us it was an opportunity to show everybody what we were all about. I was very young, playing with a lot of veterans who were very tough. I learned a lot playing for our coach, Gary Johnston.
“He said ‘we may not be the most skilled team on the park, but we’ll be the toughest and we’ll be the fittest’. We embraced that and brought with it some Canadian passion. It was a really big experience for me to be on the world stage and wearing a Canadian jersey.”
Moving on to 1991, still amateur and Canada’s greatest ever finish:
“We expected more out of ourselves. We were a confident group – we had beaten Argentina home and away in the year leading up, we’d beaten Scotland and beaten an England side. We knew we could beat the best in the world if we got it right.
“What I distinctly remember is – having won the right to play New Zealand in the quarter final – guys were literally picking up the phone to see if they could get another week off work so they could stay and play. That’s how genuine that experience was. There was a chance the boss would say no, and the guy would have to choose between a World Cup quarter final or quitting his job.”
Check out the rest of the interview in the video below.
