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Jones sends message from Fiji on what MLR can do for game in Canada

Canada players look on at the end of their 2015 RWC match after losing to Italy in Leeds (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

Canada head coach Kingsley Jones believes the success of Major League Rugby in North America will ensure his team becomes stronger on the world stage with players getting regular professional rugby experience rather than being ignored by their overseas clubs.

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Toronto Arrows and a heavily Canadian-influenced Seattle Seawolves squad are part of an expanding MLR competition in North America and while Canada’s 47-19 beating by the USA last weekend suggests there is still a lot of work to be done, Jones remains optimistic about the future.

Canada were the last team to qualify for the Rugby World Cup and their reward was to join a pool including New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and Namibia and they are currently in Fiji for their two remaining Pacific Nations Cup matches with Fiji and Tonga.

Jones told the Fiji Sun: “We did have 10 players operating overseas but only Jeff Hassler (Ospreys) was getting picked regularly. We had three players at Newcastle who never got a game and now all our guys have been playing rugby. 

“Tyler Adron (Chiefs) is doing well in Super Rugby and Evan Olmstead has played at Auckland. Just go back 18 months and think of the number of Canadian players who weren’t getting exposed to daily training environments.

“Now, there is probably 45 players in the MLR who weren’t in daily training back then and they were working daytime jobs.”

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Jones has taken a squad of 31 players to Fiji, including nine front row forwards in an attempt to identify the players who will make the final World Cup squad. 

A dozen players have been left behind at Canada’s training base to continue their preparation programme and Jones knows the pressure on everyone. “There are two games in a short space of time and so we will see a few different faces.”

Captain Adron is trying to find positives from the heavy beating by their American neighbours and expects a reaction against Fiji in their next match. 

He explained: “It’s probably one of the best things that can happen early in this competition. I have never questioned the effort of these guys but the technique and some of the execution can be a bit suspect at times.”

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WATCH: The latest RugbyPass documentary, Foden – Stateside, looks at how ex-England international Ben Foden is settling into Major League Rugby in New York

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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