Canada really have been the major casualty of the pro era. Had there been tiers in the 80s & 90s it's quite possible Canada would have been in the top flight, and had there been rankings they might have spent a fair amount of time in the top 10. They beat France, Scotland & Wales - the latter both home & away - and also reached the quarter-finalsts of the 1991 World Cup ahead of Fiji & Romania. But the pro era has witnessed their steady decline as the administration has failed to move with the times. Not only have they fallen behind traditional rivals USA, they have basically been the weakest team in the entire PNC for the last few years. & while all the other teams in the brand new Americas Rugby Championship (aka the Americas 6 Nations) were playing in major stadiums, the Canadians decided to play their home games basically in a road-side park. Meanwhile, they are currently ranked 18th, having hit an all-time low of 19th last year following another winless World Cup.
PRO Rugby North America Officially Dead in Canada for 2017
The official announcement came over Twitter at 7:55am and there's no doubt from the tone that PRO Rugby blames Rugby Canada and basically says so in a later tweet. Rugby Canada have promised a full commentary according to Tim Powers, the chairman of Rugby Canada. The tweets appended below tell the story.
Further communication with Doug Schoninger, the entrepreneur behind PRO Rugby North America, made it clear that he felt disrespected by Rugby Canada. Rugby Canada "tried to sneak a clause in the agreement that allows foreign comps" after agreeing to terms, according to Schoninger.
It appears Rugby Canada have put their faith in PRO 12 or Super Rugby coming to Canadian shores in the near future. Time will tell if they made a huge mistake by alienating a sure thing for next year or made a good decision by waiting an extra year for Tier 1 professional. One thing is for sure the pressure is now on Rugby Canada to deliver professional rugby by 2018.
A secondary factor in this, behind the scenes, may be the support the CRC receives from the provincial unions. It's unlikely the CRC (Canadian Rugby Championships) would coexist with PRO Rugby North America as they operated in the same competition window in 2016. Rugby Canada just concluded a meeting with provincial unions in PEI this past weekend and this "competition clause" and subsequent falling apart of the agreement followed within days.
Whether the actions of Rugby Canada and the Provincial Unions are in the best interest of rugby or just in maintaining the existing power structures of rugby in Canada is a question that readers will have to consider.
I'm not sure if Canada would have been considered "top flight" but I guess that depends on your definitions. I would have said in the '80s that NZ, Aust and the 5N were top flight (SA would be asterisked as potential top flight pending the end of Apartheid related sanctions) with Romania, Argentina, Fiji and Canada as the next rank (Samoa and Italy joining them in the early '90s).
Of course the real tragedy for Canadian rugby was the outlawing of their 10-man scrum used to such good effect at RWC1987.
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Romania were a much better team too, but their decline has clearly owed to the collapse of communism and vastly reduced playing stocks. Meanwhile Canada recorded a few wins over Argentina at the end of the amateur era, at least once in Argentina, and also dominated Fiji, generally. I'm not saying they were quite up there with the 5 Nations, but they weren't far behind and certainly would have been tier 1 had the concept existed back then and included 10 teams. The Bulletin used to carry a monthly top 10 rugby ranking back in the 80s & 90s (no idea if it still does, as I no longer subscribe), with Canada and Argentina included alongside the so-called World Rugby 'foundation members.'
If they're good enough to play at World Cups, why not in between?
If you're looking at top 10 then Canada would have had a clear claim. Definitely top 11 in the 1980s (before the rise of Samoa and Italy) but I would find it hard to separate Canada, Fiji and Romania. Remarkably, none of those three played each other at all from 1971 until they all ended up in Pool D of RWC1991.
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