Big plans in place for Canadian women’s rugby

Published: 28/03/2016

Rugby Canada’s Sandro Fiorino believes the Olympics will act as a major catalyst for growth in the women’s game in his country.

Ahead of the fourth round of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Langford this weekend, we take a closer look at women’s rugby in Canada.

Canada is a big country with big ideas when it comes to women’s rugby.

The world’s second largest country in total area, Canada spans a vast, diverse territory between the United States to the south and the Arctic Circle to the north.

For a fledgling professional sport like women’s rugby that presents obvious challenges in attempting to grow the game. Clearly defined pathways to the top are needed to prevent potential talent not being lost in the hinterland – or to rival sports.

“We spend more money on flights in this country than anything else. It takes seven to eight hours to go coast-to-coast. When you have that type of geographical challenge it is hard to get resources across the country,” explains Rugby Canada’s Sandro Fiorino, who has been involved in coaching women’s rugby in Canada for over a decade and is assistant coach to the women’s national sevens team.

“It’s not like in Europe where the girls can jump in a car and be where they need to be in an hour and a half. That’s why we are building regional development centres in the four main rugby-playing provinces: Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.

“Kids play at high school and then they get identified into an age-specific provincial programme. Each of the provinces have teams at under-16, under-18 and under-20 levels and everything is aligned with the senior women’s programme.

“It is a pretty detailed pathway, so a kid at the age of 14 or 15 can understand the direction in which they are heading for the next few years.”

Fiorino says that university rugby remains a vital part of the jigsaw too.

“Most of our players go to university and play rugby there for three to four years. That’s where they really develop their core skills and they also focus on their strength and conditioning.

“Every province has rugby-playing universities and they act as feeders into the provincial programmes.

“If you look at our current roster of sevens and 15s players, I’d say 90 per cent of them went to university where the competition is pretty strong.

“The alignment of these programmes and the creation of the pathway is obviously a positive thing because it has provided a platform for women in this country. You can see that based on performances with the 15s team finishing second in the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2014 and the success of the sevens team.”

Medal contenders

With 20,000 female players estimated to be playing the game as a whole in Canada and a successful national team set-up inspiring the next generation, it would appear Rugby Canada’s strategic approach is paying dividends.

Fiorino says qualification for Rio 2016, via a second-place finish on the 2014-15 World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, can only help propel the sport onto another level through increased media exposure and the commercial spin-offs that will bring.

Beating New Zealand for the first time in the semi-finals of February’s Sao Paulo Sevens, after a wonder try from captain Jen Kish (pictured), was another tangible sign that everything is pointing in the right direction.

“I’d say rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in Canada right now, and after Rio I think it is going to explode in this country,” insisted Fiorino.

Government-backed Own the Podium funding has enabled the Canadian women’s sevens team to go full-time, further enhancing their medal prospects in Rio in August.

“We have full-time coaching, medical and conditioning staff and 20 plus girls training five or six days a week (at the Centre of Excellence in Langford). I’m not saying these players get paid a lot of money, because they don’t, there is no illusion of that, it is only $1,500-1,600 dollars a month but the training environment is very professional and you start seeing a trickle down effect throughout the rest of the country.”

With the Try 4 Gold talent identification programme attracting athletes from other sports, Fiorino says the athleticism of the players they are working with has “gone through the roof.”

“Our goal is to have teams that perform in 2020 and 2024 and we have already started to identify players for that. We have 14 and 16 year olds who are really excited to know that there is an opportunity for them to represent their country and be future Olympians.

“I think we have put in an excellent plan in place over the next eight years regardless of where we finish in Rio.”