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Today marks the 30-year anniversary of the first and only Quarter Final appearance by Canada’s Senior Men’s team at a Rugby World Cup. October 20, 1991, saw the Maple Leafs facing the New Zealand All Blacks in Lille, France, on one of the most memorable occasions in Canadian rugby history.
Canada were drawn in Pool 4 at the 16-team tournament, and would reach the Top 8 on the back of successive wins over Fiji and Romania. Their final match of the pool stage saw them falling just short to hosts France by a score of 19-13 at Agen.
New Zealand meanwhile were the defending champions and emerged unbeaten in Pool 1. Their games were played in England, and it was their hosts who proved a challenge at Twickenham in the first game, followed by more convincing wins over the USA and Italy.
A crowd of 30,360 attended the match at Stade Nord and were treated to a fiercely confrontational match though the skills of the All Blacks would ultimately prove the difference. John Timu led the way with two of New Zealand’s five tries, with Chris Tynan and Al Charron touching down for the men in red.
The Canadian team was mostly comprised of players from BC with Ian Birtwell the Head Coach, Rod Holloway leading the forwards, and Mike Luke the Team Manager. In 2018 the group in their entirety was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame. Gareth Rees and Al Charron would be entered into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2010 and 2017 respectively.
CANADA
1 Eddie Evans, 2 David Speirs, 3 Paul Szabo, 4 Ron van den Brink, 5 Norm Hadley, 6 Al Charron, 7 Gord MacKinnon, 8 Glenn Ennis, 9 Chris Tynan, 10 Gareth Rees, 11 Steve Gray, 12 Tom Woods, 13 Christian Stewart, 14 Scott Stewart, 15 Mark Wyatt (capt.)
NEW ZEALAND
1 Steve McDowall, 2 Sean Fitzpatrick, 3 Richard Loe, 4 Ian Jones, 5 Gary Whetton (capt.), 6 Alan Whetton, 7 Paul Henderson, 8 Zinzan Brooke, 9 Graeme Bachop, 10 Grant Fox, 11 Va’aiga Tuigamala, 12 Bernie McCahill, 13 Craig Innes, 14 John Kirwan, 15 John Timu
Referee: Fred Howard (England)
