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The Emerald Isle is back on the schedule. Canada will send a domestic side to Ireland in August. Originally planned at the beginning of the year, the tour to Ireland was due to be shelved in favor of a Pacific competition, but with the unusual timing and Pacific sides already committed elsewhere, it’s back to Plan ‘A’. While more details are still to emerge, it appears the tour will be three matches, with a match against Ulster Ravens on August 26 – likely to be the tour finale – now confirmed by the Irish province.
With the tour falling outside the official international release window, Canada will not play any test matches and will send a side similar to the one that participated in the Americas Rugby Championship, composed entirely of domestic-based players drawn from the upcoming Canadian Rugby Championship. The matches are part of an expanded calendar of high-level fixtures for Canada’s top players, with five ARC games and three tests in each of June and November providing Canada’s coaches greater opportunities to work with national level players.
Canadian rugby has had a long association with Ireland, dating back to 1899 when Ireland arrived on an 11-match tour starting in Halifax and finishing in Toronto. Former head coach and current World Rugby representative Pat Parfrey played for both Munster and Ireland, and new head coach Mark Anscombe was in charge of Ulster for two years before departing in 2014.
