The Straight Feed – Field of Dreams

What a week it’s been for Rugby Canada. Ups and downs, twists and turns it’s been nothing short of chaotic. The World Cup squad named on Monday, a CEO leaving announced earlier that day, a trip across the country to Halifax, and a new field required two days before the final warm-up match. There’s so much to talk about, and so much more to come in the coming days. Where to start?

LAST TANGO FOR PARIS

What a blow to lose Taylor Paris in the last minute of his return game after an outstanding performance. Absolute kick in the tender parts. One of the outside backs now goes to the World Cup who wasn’t supposed to. Who that was we’ll never know, but the injury virtually guarantees that DTH van der Merwe will play on the left wing.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing – it’s where he’s played most often for Glasgow and, in an ideal world, his best position. The question is do we have a 13 who can get the job done? Ciaran Hearn looks like the man most likely to take the role, at least he will for tomorrow anyway.

FIASCO EL FIELDO

Ok, maybe we should have started here… so in case you didn’t notice, there’s a problem with the field. Here’s a quick(ish) synopsis. Months ago when the game was announced, they decided Wanderers was the best location. In terms of geographic location, it absolutely was. In terms of pitch condition and logistics, not so much. Had everything gone perfectly to plan, maybe.

Fast forward to Wednesday. Gregor Townsend arrives with Glasgow Warriors, looks at the pitch, says ‘no dice’. Kieran Crowley arrives and agrees. It’s not that it was necessarily ‘unsafe’, it’s that it clearly wasn’t up to international standard. Now there’s a problem, because Halifax has no proper fields. Solution – build a new one, in two days.

What they’ve now done is constructed one international size pitch across two side-by-side smaller ones at Graves-Oakley Memorial Park in Spryfield. Location far from ideal, but the pitch itself looks decent, particularly since it was made, basically, yesterday and today. Stands are up, uprights are in the ground, we’re good to go. Considering the time constraints and high potential of complete disaster, the recovery has actually been pretty impressive.

Of course Rugby Nova Scotia, Rugby Canada, and SEA Atlantic don’t look too swish in the eyes of the public. A shortage of due diligence from all parties? Hard to argue with that, though the city has to take their chunk of the blame as well. Wanderers is city-owned and city-maintained. The city did not hold up the end of the bargain. Questions of whether a contingency plan should have been brought in earlier are probably also fair. Bottom line, don’t expect to see a game like this back in Halifax until the city decides to build a proper venue.

Will it affect attendance at the game? In a word, no. The Maritime rugby community is dying to watch top level rugby. The game is essentially sold out. Rugby NS said today that around 70 or so tickets had been refunded, but more than a hundred new people had requested tickets. You know the saying – there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

MORE STREAMING WOES

Getting decent streams for games has been a struggle this season, and should absolutely be priority number one heading into next year. Up until this afternoon’s captain’s run, the game was going to be streamed. Now it is not. It seems the venue change has proved insurmountable in this case. The game will be broadcast on Eastlink TV to the local Maritimes, and will also be shown on the BBC for folks in the UK. If you happen to have a friend who knows a friend who dabbles in the world of questionable streams, you might want to inquire about it. Otherwise, follow this Twitter feed for live action from the field.

NOW TAKING APPLICATIONS

And so the news rang down this week that Graham Brown was stepping down as CEO after 13 years with the organization. Fear not, he will be moving on to another job with the same acronym, only this time for Canadian Interuniversity Sport. Most will be celebrating the occasion, some for different reasons. There are those that will question whether he did enough for the rugby side of things.

On the business side one cannot deny the numbers. Rugby Canada has had a vast increase in personnel during his time and have graduated to BMO Field during his tenure, with record attendances. That is no small feat. That he leaves Rugby Canada in a significantly better position than when he started suggests he has done a lot of things right.

In speaking to some of the other staff, the decision comes as a bit of a surprise, more so in the timing of the announcement. There won’t be a rush to find a replacement, and there shouldn’t be. Finding an ambitious and qualified leader to take the reigns who understands where the sport is in the country won’t be easy, even less so with a limited budget to pay for them.

Whether applications will soon follow for a new head coach remains to be seen. Leo Crowley and Neil Barnes have already announced they are off to Super Rugby following the World Cup. Kieran Crowley’s contract runs out in June of next year, and there are whispers of what might happen but nothing concrete. Will he seek an extension, or does he perhaps have eyes on another role within Rugby Canada? It looks like we’ll have to get through the World Cup at least before we get any kind of an answer.

TALES FROM THE CAPTAIN’S RUN

We’ll close with some notes from today’s captain’s run and other goings on.

In speaking to the players, they seem to be in pretty good spirits despite their tough run of matches. They are all genuinely looking forward to the World Cup and are quietly confident that they can cause some problems, and maybe a couple upsets.

The coaches seem to share their opinion. Of course that should be the case, but more specifically they feel that the results will come as the players grow into the new attack system that’s only just been imposed since Leo Crowley arrived for the Pacific Nations Cup.

At a fairly candid coaching seminar this evening they detailed their game plan, and pointed out that individual errors have cost the team massively in the past few games. It’s a positive system, but do we have the horses to implement it? That seems to be the million dollar question at the moment.

With regards to selection for the match, the coaching staff noted that playing time will be monitored closely over these last three warm-up games, which take place in the space of only eight days. Kieran Crowley said that was his idea to make sure his whole squad was fully prepared for the tournament.

Crowley expects to get about 40 minutes out of Jamie Cudmore tomorrow, and around 30 from Jebb Sinclair. Both are in their return to play protocol. Jebb says he’s about two weeks behind at the moment in terms of physical preparation, so the time between now and the Ireland test will be crucial for him to get up to speed.

A few others are nursing bumps and bruises and are being rested. Tyler Ardron and Jason Marshall did not take part in the run, but Marshall was doing drills with the team on Thursday. Crowley says that if it were a World Cup match tomorrow, they would be playing.

A few players mentioned that some cold-like symptoms had spread through the group during the week, but they were coming through ok in time for the match.

As if there weren’t enough problems already, the bus carrying the team to practice somehow managed to get stuck on a dip in the parking lot entrance, leaving the players with a few extra metres to stroll to the pitch. It did at least provide some comic relief. Glasgow’s bus driver managed to avoid the same fate.

Evan Olmstead is excited about getting to pack down with Jamie Cudmore, who took him around the dressing room to meet the team at the World Cup in 2003, when Evan was only 12. Destiny?