Regular readers will already be aware I am a huge rugby fan.
So it was a pretty large thrill recently when I had the opportunity to interview national team 15s member Hubert Buydens.
Buydens is a favourite having been born in Saskatoon. As you might guess not a lot of players from here make the national team.
Buydens said he got his start at Walter Murray High School in Saskatoon, where there were nearly a dozen schools involved. That was a big plus he said, but added interest has waned somewhat since then.
“It’s down to two, or three,” he said.
Buydens currently plays his club rugby with the Castaway Wanderers RFC in the British Columbia Premiership and with the Prairie Wolf Pack in the Canadian Rugby Championship.
The interview was timely for a couple of reasons, starting with being able to ask Buydens about PRO Rugby North America.
PRO Rugby NA is a new professional rugby loop about to kick off its inaugural season.
Initially the league was suggesting it would launch with six teams, but that has been trimmed to five now; Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, Ohio (City of Obetz near Columbus), and Denver.
The teams will play a 12-game schedule from April to July, with game one scheduled for April 17.
“I am aware of the league,” said Buydens, adding he had a chance to talk to the Director of Rugby in Texas about the new planned six-team loop. “… They’re working really hard to get it off the ground this year.”
Buydens said the first season the league is likely going to have teams heavily manned by Americans, adding to bring in a Canadian, which would be allowed will be difficult in terms of timeframe to get a Visa in place.
“The first is likely to be 90-95 per cent American. Just to make sure it gets off the ground,” he offered. He added in the future he could see 25 per cent of spots open to Canadian, or other import players.
It has been reported the new league could expand to Canada as early as 2017.
Buydens said it would be great to see the league encompass the continent, and in particular have pro rugby in Canada on a larger basis.
“We do have a smaller league; four teams in the Canadian Rugby Championship,” he noted, adding he plays with the Prairie Wolf Pack, based out of Calgary.
Buydens said teams in Toronto and Vancouver would seem the most viable locales this side of the border, at least initially.
“It’s something to look forward to,” he said.
Certainly in my sports world I would have put a pro rugby league involving Canadian teams near the top of my wish list, so hopefully the loop will do well-enough this year to see the expansion that would bring it north to Canada in 2017.
Buydens also captained Canada at the recent Americas Rugby Championship.
Canada won its first game of the six-team event over Uruguay 20-6 in a game played in Canada, but then dropped a game in the US to the American side 16-3.
“We lost a step in that one … We really let it slip away,” said Buydens. “We had the game in control, but we made too many simple errors.”
The second half play of the team has been its Achille’s Heel for far too many contests of late, and Buyden said the team recognizes that.
“It’s definitely something we have to keep working at — finishing the last 10-minutes of a game,” he said.
Canada would play its final Americas Cup against Argentina, which was the highest world ranked team in the event, coming off a World Cup final spot as well.
The Argentinians would roll to a 39-9 win, to go undefeated in the Cup.
Buydens was also a member of the Canada national side at the 2011 Rugby World Cup where he made four appearances, and again at the 2015 event in Britain where Canada was 0-4.
Buydens said the recent Championship was an amazing experience.
“It is the third largest sporting event in the world,” he noted.
The overall experience was great, but the results were not as Canada lost all four of its games in pool play.
“It was disappointing we didn’t come out with a win,” said Buydens, adding that was especially true against Italy who they had tied at the half, and against Romania, another close loss.
But even with the losses Buydens said he feels Canada “played a good style of Rugby,” at the championships, and that is something to be proud of.
In the wake of the championship the Canadian 15s program is in something of a state of flux.
“It’s kind of a fresh start,” he said, adding the team is searching for a new head coach and CEO.
It will be the same on the field.
“There will be a big turn over the next four years,” he said, adding the team will have to develop through that time of change. “We’ll have to find our identity.”
Buyden, 34, himself is not sure whether he will be part of that change.
“I’m kind of undecided,” he said, adding he is coming up on 50 caps, international games with the national team, and that is a big plateau.
“I’m going for that and then see where life takes me.”
As for what might come after he retires, Buydens said he really has no idea, although he said it may well be in the sport, perhaps on the sidelines as a coach.
Then he added he still likes the competition on the field, so retirement anytime soon is far from decided upon.
“As long as it’s still fun,” he said.
