Rugby Canada announces Iain Monaghan as Maple Leaf Academy and Women’s Sevens coach

Rugby Canada is pleased to announce that Iain Monaghan has been appointed as Head Coach of the Maple Leaf Academy and Assistant Coach of the Women’s Sevens Team.

Monaghan brings over 15 years of experience coaching high performance women’s and men’s rugby in Scotland and Hong Kong. Most recently he served as Head Coach of Hong Kong’s Women’s Sevens Team, spending four years developing Hong Kong’s young players and leading the country into a new era of women’s rugby. He additionally consulted as a defence coach with Hong Kong Scottish RFC in the Hong Kong Men’s Premiership.

Prior to working in Hong Kong, Monaghan coached age-grade and developmental players with the Glasgow Warriors and Scottish Rugby’s U18 and U20 programs, gaining a wealth of knowledge in the development of performance programming. During his eight years as the Glasgow Warriors’ National Academy Professional-Stage Lead Coach and Specialist Skills Coach, Monaghan was responsible for the technical and tactical development of players on the pathway to playing professional and international rugby.

Monaghan also has a deep understanding of major high performance competitions, and throughout his time coaching in Europe and Asia, led teams at Junior World Cups and Six Nations tournaments as well through Olympic qualification and Asian Games campaigns.

“Iain’s expertise, especially in regard to developmental programs and players, stood out to our high performance staff who led the hiring process for this position,” said Nathan Bombrys, Rugby Canada CEO. “Iain has a proven track record of elevating and advancing the players he works with, and I join the rest of our team in looking forward to welcoming him to Rugby Canada. He will be based at the National Training Centre in Langford working with our carded and NextGen players. He will also have a critical role in developing a sustainable NextGen partnership with our key stakeholders.”

“I am absolutely buzzing to have earned the opportunity to work with Jack [Hanratty] and the support team at Rugby Canada, and the wider rugby community, to support and build on their great achievements,” said Monaghan. “I am particularly excited to work with Canada’s proud future and current athletes who I firmly believe to be some of the best athletes and people in the world. This is hugely exciting and motivating for me.”

This role is financially supported by Own the Podium, a partner that continues to support Rugby Canada.

Monaghan will begin working with the Maple Leaf Academy and the Women’s Sevens Team in mid-February.