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The BC Bears will have new coaches in place for the 2017 Canadian Rugby Championship. Gone after one year in charge is Gabriel Fulcher, the former Ireland international moving to Ottawa in September to pursue a writing career. Taking his place as the new head coach is another second row, former Canadian international Tony Healy. Assisting him will be another name familiar to Canadians, current international scrumhalf Phil Mack.
Healy won 15 caps for Canada between 1996 and 1999, playing the 1998 World Cup qualifier against Uruguay before being unlucky to miss out on the tournament itself the following year. He left James Bay to join Marmande in France in 1996 and spent the next eight years abroad playing professionally. During that time he would also suit up for Dax, Moseley, Auch, Bordeaux, and finally Bayonne. In 2004 Healy returned to Canada to pursue a teaching career at Brentwood College. He has since been a coach with James Bay and Canada u20.
The appointment of Mack in a coaching capacity will raise some eyebrows, not in any sense that the dual international is not qualified, rather that he will not be participating as a player. Having already retired from international sevens duty and making clear moves towards a coaching career, it does suggest that his time as a player in XVs is also nearing an end. At 31 years of age it could also be that Mack is simply looking to conserve his body following his likely involvement in the June test series and World Cup qualifiers.
Either way the inclusion of the James Bay pair as coaches should attract a strong playing group for a team that has struggled to field its optimal side in recent years. Along with the condensed four-game CRC season, the Bears have arranged a match on May 27 against the ‘Maple Leafs’, a Canadian domestic XV, in a meeting that should double as a trial game ahead of the June series.
