Recent Reflections Of The "Average Joe" Club Fan

The Prez and Joe Fuli ham it up! 

The paradoxes of Canadian Rugby from global to local are many.  The fan has to admit joy with the successes of the Men's and Women's XV's and VII's results over the past 6 - 8 months however the questions of  where and how far we go are enigmatic.  This Average Joe was recently reading that SANZAR wants the Super XV Comp to be expanded to Super XX by 2018, expanding to include teams from Japan and Argentina.  The Japan incentive is coorporate dollars and hosting RWC in 2019.  This will be further enhanced with the recently announced 2020 Tokyo Olympics  Just when we get close, i.e. 13 - 18 loss to Japan at full strength, at home after a three day turnaround and long flight - a definite success for the Team & Fan, we now face a potential, further disparity of opportunity.  Are not these two countries Tier II teams and should they not have equal opportunities if the IRB wants to see expanded interest in the game?  When we think we are "getting closer" we see sponsorship in Japan and washed up Aussie and Kiwi players earning huge dollars from industrial sponsors, giving scope for far greater improvement than we can think to be possible for our national team players.

Then there is the paradox of just where do our players come from?  Over the past decade and longer, CW has lent its shoulder to the development grindstone to no great avail.  With as many as 180 Minis - U18's wearing The Triclors on any Fall weekend, one would think that graduating players to senior rugby would not be a problem.  Our experience has been that players go to university, travel, move away for work opportunities or the void between U18 and senior rugby results in a loss of interest.  Schools are no longer developing players as was the case two decades ago, for a number of reasons.  The paradox is that we are getting better International results with fewer players and the well will eventually dry up, with added operational costs and the unavailability to the club team of top class players due to their other demands, not to mention our top players are playing both VII's and XV's.

The improved on field results have seen enhanced Federal funding - a good thing but it has been predominantly for VII's players which leaves the question of how do we support "tight five" players?  Clubs cannot afford financial remuneration to players and so how the big man can focus on their rugby excellence and eat is no light question! At the heart of success is the game at the club level and the National body must keep the club's best interests in mind to ensure the continued growth and availability of players to develop to a level of excellence.  The challenges of the sport are many but still, in the words of an old mate, Steve Finnane, "it is the game they play in Heaven"!