Hanratty and Nova Scotia ready for Battle

It’s not exactly the type of press that he wanted, but Nova Scotia provincial coach Jack Hanratty isn’t about to wave any white flags. The big news around town in the last 24 hours was that the ‘Battle of New Scotland,’ the match between Canada and Guinness Pro 12 champions Glasgow Warriors, would have to change venues after the field had been deemed unsatisfactory by both Glasgow coach Gregor Townsend and Canada’s Kieran Crowley.

The decision was made late Wednesday afternoon, and the scramble began to figure out a suitable alternative. Graves-Oakley Memorial Park won the impromptu sweepstakes, a multi-purpose group of fields located on the outskirts of Spryfield, south-west of the Halifax Peninsula. In actuality none of the fields were big enough to accommodate the match, so a new one of international size is being constructed from the two side-by-side pitches – lines, uprights, stands, and all – in time for Saturday’s match. It’s not an ideal situation, and Hanratty acknowledges that questions will be asked.

“It’s difficult to get one professional team to come out here. We’ve got two this week, and neither are happy with the playing surface that we’ve provided them. I’m not happy with the playing surface. If we’re going to make this a homestead for national age grade teams or the women’s team to come out here and play, we have to make this perfect. Obviously we’re not used to hosting these types of games so we had a few hiccups, but the field is the main one.

“That said I think the event is still going to be incredible. If you think about the amount of people that came just to watch our Keltics trial game in March, I have no doubt the East Coast rugby community will show up and be out in spirit. The field issue puts some negative spin on it, and that’s unfortunate, but I hope what comes out of this is that the community – and the city – realises that we need a proper athletic field. If we can start having those conversations then we can turn this into a positive.”

The frustration is clear to see in Hanratty, who first arrived in the city a little over three years ago from Ireland. Now in his third season as head coach of Nova Scotia’s senior side – the Keltics – as well as playing a leading role in their age grade and women’s teams, just getting the game in the first place has been an idea nearly two years in the making.

“[Director of Rugby] Dr. John [Gillis], [promoter] Derek [Martin], and I met and talked about getting a game. We wanted to try and get the Canada-Scotland game [in 2014], but we didn’t get the backing from the city, and there just weren’t enough things in place. When this opportunity came about, and WestJet announcing a direct flight to Glasgow, it just seemed like the perfect time.”

It’s a major event for Rugby Nova Scotia, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary as a union, arguably the biggest in its history. The last time Canada played anywhere in the Maritimes was in 2006, when they hosted the US Eagles in St. John’s. Before that it was a famous victory over Scotland in Saint John, New Brunswick, way back in 1991. They have never before played in Nova Scotia.

“It’s massively important that we, as a union, commit to doing other things,” says Hanratty. “We wanted to do coaching seminars, we wanted to do a kids clinic, there’s even a fitness seminar going on for some of the conditioning coaches. We committed to make sure we were doing stuff for the community as well as the rugby public.”

Indeed there has been no shortage of rugby-themed events in the lead-up to the match. On Wednesday evening some 50 coaches from around the Maritimes, and a couple from Ontario, were treated to a masterclass from Townsend, world-renowned as both a player and coach. Thursday saw several members of Canada’s men’s and women’s teams – including Nova Scotia’s own Emma Taylor – running a kids session in the gym at Citadel High. The evening featured a meet-and-greet with players from both Canada and Glasgow, and on Friday coach Crowley will be presenting his own seminar.

Rugby has been a regular in the local news for the past week, a refreshing change, as Rugby Nova Scotia partnered with the RCMP to put on a free youth clinic in North Preston. The efforts introduced the sport to a number of kids who might otherwise have never seen a rugby ball before, and also got the attention and support of the CBC.

“That was a big win for us, we’ve had lots of phone calls since asking if we can come in and do more. Once the off-season comes I will definitely get around and give it a go to see if they like it. We’ll build from there, and the clubs certainly want to buy into it. We want to spread the game and get into the communities. The past couple weeks we’ve had so much going on, and it’s brought so much attention. I think the rugby community is really happy with what we’ve done, and that’s important.”

On the field it’s been a banner year for the Keltics. They won five out of six, defeated both New Brunswick and Quebec twice, and for the first time in 15 years they came out on top against the Rock. That was the home game in Halifax. Their only loss off the season was the match at Swilers Rugby Park in July.

“I’m pretty annoyed that we lost that game. I really thought we were up to it, but it certainly gives us something to aim for next year. Beating the Rock was massively important, we needed to get that off our back. Doing it well is what we want to do next year, and doing it in St. John’s would be an even bigger achievement.”

Beyond winning a match on Newfoundland’s daunting home turf, Hanratty says what drives him is to produce athletes capable of competing at the national level. Nova Scotia have produced international players in the past, most notably the Williams brothers Jeff and Morgan, but until Taylor achieved that status in the Women’s Super Series this year the province had been going through a dry spell.

“I think there’s a choice you have to make. Either you want you be the best player in the region, or you just want to play rugby for fun. I respect both, but you can’t be half-of-one and half-of-the-other. The players have to decide that they want to be high performance athletes. We don’t have high performance rugby here. We have Emma, and some players who have been on national longlists, but that’s not enough. We might never achieve that level as a group here, but we want to be able to give players the tools to achieve that as individuals and possibly move on to that level somewhere else.

“We have a strategic plan now. We would like to have three players on every under-age longlist. At senior level, we want to have at least one on the roster. The best thing about Saturday is that we have the best players in Canada on display; the worst thing is that nobody will have Nova Scotia beside their name. That’s one thing that I really hope comes out of Saturday. We need players up there. That will take money, and a lot of hard work, but Emma has made it so there’s no reason someone else can’t do the same.”

There’s no doubt Maritime rugby has its limitations in terms of population and resources. Only three clubs east of Quebec have proper field and clubhouse facilities – the Fredericton Loyalists, Truro Saints, and Swilers. Despite that, the quality of rugby in the region seems to be improving and with it the popularity of the sport continues to grow. For Hanratty, the biggest obstacle to success comes back to the problem of the day – the field.

“Not having a home field that we can use at all times is a big deal. Looking out at the weather to see if we can train tonight or not, that’s unbelievable. My first year in charge of the team we had eight weeks to prepare for Newfoundland, and the first time we ran in the rain was at the game, because the city wouldn’t allow us out on the fields when it was raining.

“I respect the likes of Enfield, Truro, Pictou, the Valley, who have pitches that they can use every day. For the amount of rugby players that we have in the city, not to have a guaranteed, quality field is upsetting. It takes money though. Unless we really raise our fundraising efforts, it’s going to be a struggle to get one. That, for me, is far and away the biggest hurdle.”

Once the work is done on getting the pitch right for Saturday, the former Leinster development officer will finally get to sit down and enjoy the fruits of his labour, for a couple hours at least. While he will be rooting for the men in red this weekend, looming on the horizon is a tasty World Cup clash between his country of residence and his country of birth that will test his allegiance.

“I will look like a Christmas tree that day,” laughs Hanratty. “Of course I bleed green, but I’ve got a soft spot for Canada now that I’ve been here a little while. They’ve given me the opportunity to meet so many great people and work with the top coaches in the country. I’d like to see a draw. Well actually in a perfect world I see Ireland scoring four tries and winning by one point, with Canada scoring four tries too in a great game of rugby. I’m looking forward to seeing a preview of that on Saturday.”

follow Jack Hanratty on twitter @jackhanratty and Rugby Nova Scotia @RugbyNS