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The Vancouver Highlanders are putting forward a very high-profile program of opponents, featuring the Canadian national team among others
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Published Jul 31, 2024 • Last updated 9 minutes ago • 4 minute read
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Canada’s Jake Thiel is tackled by Japan’s Kazuma Nakagawa during HSBC Canada Sevens rugby action in Vancouver in 2022. Thiel has joined the newly formed Vancouver Highlanders. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS
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No matter what you make of the current state of the Canadian men’s rugby program, XVs or sevens, one thing is clear: the Nats need players. Lots and lots of players.
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Players with skill. Players with passion. Players with ambition.
That’s a key takeaway from understanding the surging women’s game, with the sevens team taking silver at the Olympics this week and the women’s team one of the best in the world, still bursting about beating New Zealand in May.
There once was a time when the vibes around the Canadian men’s program were good. As recently as a decade ago, the men’s XVs were pushing the likes of Scotland and Italy close. The men’s sevens squad looked on course to be a dark horse medal candidate at the Tokyo Olympics.
Those heights were driven by a golden generation of players. They were well-supported.
The picture today is starkly different. The men’s XV missed out on the 2023 Rugby World Cup, the first time Canada had ever failed to qualify. In 2019, good fortune played a large role in them grabbing the final qualification spot.
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And the men’s sevens stumbled out of the World Series this past season, then failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
The women are going gangbusters. The men need just about everything.
More than anything, the players need to feel loved. They also need team environments that will raise them up.
They need professional rugby.
There is continuing, growing noise about a Major League Rugby team landing in Burnaby in the near future — the Patrick O’Gorman-led franchise continues to report good progress in talks with the City of Burnaby and MLR itself — but until that’s done, it’s all hypothetical.
An MLR team would be a conventional-looking contribution to the overall package. But the league has hardly been stable in its short existence — just look at what happened with Canada’s only previous entry, the Toronto Arrows, which collapsed following the death of managing owner Bill Webb.
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What is not hypothetical are the Vancouver Highlanders, who have played to good crowds this summer at the rugby fields at Burnaby Lake. They are set to to play twice more in August at West Vancouver’s Klahanie Park field against Brazil (Aug. 3) and a Canada XV (Aug. 17). Both those games kick off at 5 p.m. Tickets are $35; kids under 12 are free.
The Highlanders are a unique idea, a team that pays its players but has no league. They are the only fully professional setup in Canada at the moment.
Ralph McRae is co-founder of the Vancouver Highlanders, a new rugby team in B.C. Photo by Vancouver Highlanders /prv
The point of the Highlanders has been to offer elite players a proper rugby environment, assistance in their real-life careers, and a steady wage.
Like any startup, there are hiccups. But the overall project is on the right course, says Highlanders player Jake Thiel.
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“In essence, it’s something that is working. And you don’t beat an international team by accident,” he said.
The Highlanders have done just that. They played a doubleheader at the end of June, beating a Canada Selects squad and then the Barbados national squad.
And then two weeks ago, they defeated Germany. The Germans aren’t a leading world power, but as mid-tier national squads go, they have had their moments — they have wins over Romania, Portugal and Uruguay in recent memory.
“I don’t even think we played our best, but we still beat them,” Thiel said. “We are on the precipice of creating something positive. We want to be something tangible for kids to aspire to.”
Even if they didn’t play well in his estimation, they are still playing an entertaining brand of rugby, the former Canada Sevens captain says. And entertainment is what Canadian rugby fans want to see.
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“Playing interesting rugby is important,” he said. “Fans are so used to sevens, so watching a box-kick heavy game, that’s boring. We’re throwing the ball around. It’s entertaining,” he said, before praising his coaches.
“They’ve done a good job of immersing the personality of the players into the game plan,” he said.
“When you think about wanting to build a fan base, nobody is going to watch a team that’s scared. You want to watch players that are enjoying it.”
Curry Hitchborn is the head coach of the Vancouver Highlanders rugby team. Photo by Vancouver Highlanders. /prv
pjohnston@postmedia.com
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/canadian-mens-rugby-blooming-burnaby