What's the secret to the Canadians winning record against the Americans?
Some reasons I have for the record we have against the United States would be....
1. More time together as a squad, Canada seems to have more time together as a combined unit particularly with the elite training centre.
2. Better goal kicking, Pritchard(and a couple of other backups) have generally been higher percentage kickers than their Eagles counterparts, this has turned the tide in some close match ups.
3. Better bench and depth, the starting XV are quite even and in fact the United States are superior in more than a few positions, but in most matches Canada have been able to put on better replacements or cover for injured tour players. This has turned some close late games
4. Luck and some bounces/breaks. I'm thinking of the 2nd RWC qualifier as a prime example, a few bounces here and there, some missed kicks and we came out as mildly undeserving winners. Over the years it seems as though we've pulled a couple extra wins over the Eagles.
5. A better pathway to the National side, while the pathway is certainly not perfect in Canada I think it stands favourably to the system in the States. The Canadian Rugby Championship is an excellent example of this, and the United States could really use an equivalent competition. The college and University game tends to be better developed in Canada as well, the United States has some fantastic school teams but they stand heads and shoulders above other programs within the country and I've seen some games become so lopsided they make Namibia's performance against Australia in 2003 look good. It's not good for either the losing or winning side development wise in that kind of scenario.
6. Better coaching, with the exception of Ric Suggit's tenure I think Canada has usually had coaches that have held their own in the International arena, the United States has had some good coaches and some uhhh not so good coaches.
7.
This is a mostly historical reason that is dissapating with every passing year considerably and is probably non existent now. More interest in the game, this would be mostly true of the pre 1995ish results, since than this factor has pretty much dissapeared, the United States likely has higher playing numbers in general than we do.
The Eastern Ontario clubs are in the ORU but play in the Quebec league. Has been like that for past 3-4 seasons. When they even play for a CRC team it seems to be the Rock.
I thought of this the other day and I wondered if Rugby Canada was worried about the strength of The Rock in the longer term. I've seen some dissapointing junior results from the Atlantic sides in the last few years and some of the Senior members of their CRC team are nearing the end of their careers or have peaked. They still tend to be a tough nut to crack at home but away results have been pretty poor.
Combined with the aging and mostly stagnant population growth in the team's catchment area compared to the other three sides, the long term prospects are a little concerning, I don't want to overstate this. If The Rock lost the Quebec(and Eastern Ontario in come cases) players this would hurt their depth even more as a number of guys come out of the Montreal/Eastern Ont. club scene.
Yes I'm familiar with how the other unions fit in. Southwest is basically folded into Niagara. But yeah I thought it was weird that the provincial leagues didn't have any eastern teams.
Yeah the NRU/Southwest clubs have to do considerable travel some years, I remember St. Catharines, Grimsby, Niagara II, even having to travel all the way to Windsor for games a few years back even at a low level. Division C which your in now and which I know a few guys in is at least a little better these days. I remember a slew of forfeitures at some of those extreme travel games as team's couldnt find enough willing players to make the trip.
our club was playing against Burlington before the Ontario game at the same field. I was pretty annoyed at missing it so I want to get out there this year.
