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Canadian international Reegan O’Gorman will play for South Canterbury in New Zealand’s Heartland Championship. The 22-year-old second row has been a regular for the Marist Albion club in Christchurch since 2015. His ties to the region come through his father, a New Zealand native who himself played second row for Canterbury in the mid-1980’s before emigrating to Canada.
After a standout season with the national u20 side in 2016 O’Gorman was called into the senior Canadian test side in the 2017 Americas Rugby Championship. He appeared in all five matches of the competition, earning his first cap as a replacement against Chile and starting the matches against the USA and Uruguay. A shoulder injury left the 1.98m (6’6″) lock on the sidelines for the remainder of the year and he has yet to return to international contention.
The Heartland Championship is the second tier provincial competition in New Zealand just below the Mitre 10 Cup. South Canterbury will play eight games beginning August 25 before two rounds of playoffs to determine the two sets of cup finalists. The top four of the 12 teams will contest the Meads Cup while the next four will play for the Lochore Cup.
Three Canadian internationals are currently tabbed to take part in the senior Mitre 10 Cup. Evan Olmstead is at Auckland, Josh Larsen at Otago, and Tyler Ardron with Bay of Plenty. Another forward – Argentine-Canadian Lucas Albornoz – is currently training with Northland.
