The IRB gave a bunch of Tier two nations a fairly substantial wad of cash to get programs going. hopefully this is goign to turn professional in the near future, but as usual, there are f*** ups.
The money isn't going in the proper locations here in Canada. The money really should be going into grassroots development across the board. I mean last year when i played for Ontario we went to BC, it costed me about $500 just to play for Ontario(that covers gear and everything else), then i'd say another $500+ in petrol money to get to toronto and back and then about $650 to go to BC for the national championships(which we won, first u16's team from Ontario to do so). And should we have been selected for the Canada U17's camp they were going to charge us another $500. That camp should be free to encourage more people to play and you're selecting us, why do WE have to pay. I just thought that was a bit much.
Any idea how this compares with the 6 Nations and Tri-Nations in terms of talent?
Very below standard. Not one guy who played in this competition could even get into the 30 man squad of a super 14 team. Hell i doubt they could get into a NPC team. It is mainly made up of club players. Although there were some solid young players. Jordan Kazina and Steve Piatek are two U21's canada players that were on the Canada east team both from my club.
Eventually rugby will be big enough that the States will have to acknowledge that it is a major sport worldwide and worthy of ESPN.
Doubt it the media hardly recognizes soccer as sport, therefor rugby will never be acknowledged. The USA tends to not recognize foreign sports at a professional level. It's ironic because 3 of the 4 major sports in the US aren't even American but Canadian.
i always get into arguements with football players here over why they condition so much, after 5 seconds of running they get 30 second breather... why why why...
It's because of the shots to your knees and shoulders. Let's not forget the pads make the game more dangerous not safe. Simple physics more mass = more force. Football players also have more concussions because of the helmet to helmet hits.
actually i read on USA Rugby he's the best college player here this past year..
He must be amazing then....just kidding he might actually be.
USA completely made a mess of this tournament what IRB should of done is given all the money to Canada an d let the game exand here where it actually has a real chance of expanding. In Canada rugby is a decently popular fringe sport and I'd say in rural areas is just as popular as soccer. Actually it is very popular in BC and is growing in Ontario and the rest of the country. Almost every high school where I come from has rugby and more high schools have rugby then football
Although i agree that the US isn't going anywhere for a long, long, long time in rugby and no doubt Canada will get much better, much more quickly you have to provide money to the US. I'd argue that you have to provide more money to USA then you do anywhere else in the world simply because of how huge the US market is. If you can get even 5% of sports fans you're making millions. I can't even begin to say how much the American market means to rugby.
The sport is evermore popular here than it is in the US. Here in Ontario even small schools have rugby. I'm talking 500 people or less. And it's even THE most popular sport in my city Brantford. And as you know Brantford is the home of Wayne Gretzky the Greatest Hockey player ever.
University rugby is getting better and better and the quality is going up and up. In Ontario it is now a full varsity sport and school import their players on athletic scholarships just to play rugby. I know at RMC where I am going Rugby team trains 3 hours a day every day.
It's very true. University teams are stacked now. They carry international players. The Pletch brothers both play for Mac along with a couple others. Everyone on the team has played for Ontario at some point in time.
Canada has a decent number of professional layers overseas and our national team is pretty much all pro now and given the right nurturing we could compete with the rest of the world eventually
There are 11 or 12 i think last time i checked, with more to come. Mensa-Coker will get a contract soon that's for sure along with a few of the forwards that don't already.
We could bring a few props etc from football and put a bunch of backs from the ice hockey ranks.
Personally i'd rather not have rejects from other sports but players groomed from the grassroots. From U7's programs and such. There are a bunch of those all over Ontario now. And in BC rugby starts in grade 8 which is U14's which isn't bad and they have huge numbers participating.
* asterisk denotes that the canadian rugby union is as old as the new zealand rugby union
Actually not really. Although a "Canadian Rugby Union" was founded in 1860 something it was what is now known as the CFL. It was a hybrid game you could say. Not football we see today but not rugby either. The real canadian rugby union was founded in 1929. And their first game was in 1932. Then they disbanded after world war 2 and didn't reform until 1965. The USA rugby union was founded in 1975.
the USA just created the U17 team, and soon enough we will start growing..
But you've said it yourself this team is basically an open try-out. By the time you have gotten to U17's the talent should have already been identified. You're already about 10 years behind Canada right now in terms of development of youth. Sad but true.
the rate at which Uni and High School rugby have grown here is tremendous..
It's also doing so in Canada. It's the fastest growing sport in Ontario High Schools or something. But the real problem for the US is the amount of choice a young athlete has. There are already 4 major sports to choose from and now lacrosse which is growing a whole lot faster than rugby unfortunately and then soccer which has a major stranglehold on grassroots programs in the US.
I'll say this though if the US wanted to be good at rugby they could be the best in the world in a heartbeat. They have more athletes than any other country. What USA rugby should be focusing their money on is getting people into the poor black comunities and getting some of those black athletes to stop playing basketball and start playing rugby. If you can get just 2% of American athletes you could dominate world rugby.