Following the U-20 World Cup held in Wales last June, it was apparent that a lack of pre-tournament game experience was a detriment to Canada. Indeed two opening fixtures, against an Australian side packed with Super 14 players and an eventual finalist England, demonstrated the wide gulf between the top teams and the rest. Canada did make some rapid adjustments to the pace and power required at the tournament, bouncing back from two heavy losses to defeat Fiji before then falling, somewhat harshly, to Scotland in extra time.
Determined not to follow suit this year and prepared to take some medicine in advance of, rather than during, the 2009 tournament, the current U-20 squad embarked on a recent two-week trip to New Zealand, playing the Development XVs from Wellington, Taranaki and Hawkes Bay.
While the three game set did not paint a pretty picture on the scoreboard with two heavy losses and one competitive defeat, the results were coloured somewhat by the fact that on average the opposition sides were several years older. More importantly, from the Canadian perspective many valuable lessons were learned by the players, while some of the structures put in place will hopefully reap dividends in Japan this June.
Significantly in a Canada touring party of thirty-five, no fewer than seventeen players and four members of the management team have been, or still are, involved with rugby at the high school level in BC. Some of the standout players on the tour were flanker Jesse Kliman (SMUS ’08), lock Jeff McKinnon (Carson Graham ’08), wing Will Philippson (Brentwood College ’08), centre Harry Jones (Rockridge ’07) and centre Conor Trainor (St. George’s ’07).
The 2008 U-20 World Cup runs from June 1 to 23 in Japan. Seeded twelfth, Canada will be based in Fukuoka, and play Australia, Wales and Tonga before moving on to the classification rounds.
Ian Hyde-Lay
Assistant Coach, Canada U-20 Program