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Canada U-20 Men’s team prepare for World Trophy in Bucharest

Dr. Pat Parfrey
Rugby 15s U20 Men

Canada's Men's Under-20 Team qualified for the 2018 Junior World Trophy in Bucharest, August 24 - Sept 10, by beating USA U-20 by an aggregate of 82-62 over two games.

The team was together for six weeks and coached by Jeff Williams, Gethin Watts and Adam Roberts. It is likely that the excellent preparation in Shawnigan Lake School preceding the games, offset the fact that USA had a fine group of good athletes, playing at home. Although Canada’s performance was limited to some extent by the hot weather, the impact of their preparation was evident in organized set play and continuity in phase play.

"The objective of the Canada U-20 program is to create a solid building block to make Canada more competitive. Certainly our goal to beat the USA was achieved but  the overall development of individual players is also important to us, and we feel that this objective was accomplished over the past six weeks," said Program Lead, Gethin Watts.

The challenge for Canada is to get fitter and stronger over the next ten weeks, as it was evident that this group of players are more suited to the multi-phase game. Consequently each player will receive an individualized strength and conditioning plan, to be undertaken in their region supervised by the coaching staff. This decentralized approach is a challenge but necessary  to overcome Canada’s geography, and compete with their opposition ( Fiji,Uruguay and Portugal ) who benefit from centralized programs. The U-20 program has already been in contact with the regions to ensure greater collaboration across the country with the national program.

Furthermore this spirit of collaboration is exemplified by the decision of Damien McGrath, head coach of Canada's Men's Sevens Team, to integrate U-20 players living in Victoria into his sevens squad for training.

The team will re-congregate at Shawnigan Lake School on August 14 for a week long camp prior to flying to Bucharest on August 23. A game has been organized vs. BC U-23 on August 18. The squad from which the final team will be selected will comprise about 34 players and will be announced after the CRC U-19 in Saskatoon on July 23. “ We are certainly looking to add players to our team, and view the CRC as an important venue to identify players," commented Head Coach Jeff Williams.

“We have an obligation to the country to select the best possible team.”