RugbyRebels

Canada beaten by Belgium. Belgium. Barely in the second tier of European rugby. So sad.

I just focus on the women's rugby and hope something will change for the better.

Fair enough. One would hope that with the expansion of the Men’s RWC to 24 teams they might at least qualify again.

I think we should call the death of Canadian rugby as any kind of a force at this point. Rugby Canada has seemed determined to run it into the ground, managing to keep an amateur level of administration and organisation, while still racking up masssive debts and discouraging participation by making players pay for the union's blundering. They have continually attempted to have a professional program that is laser-focussed in Vancouver and move the players to that centralised location, but Canada is too big and the pay is too small to do that effectively, so they're basically reducing their catchment area down to Lower-Mainland British Columbia, so picking from 3 million people rather than 41 million.

The final nail in the coffin came when Bill Webb died and the Toronto Arrows died with him. It was already on the rocks, given the union had given the side no support or encouragement whatsoever (madness considering the opportunity presented by the hard work and then demise of the rugby league side), but losing the only professional rugby side in the country and the only development and academy work east of the Rockies, was a terrible loss.

Can't see them qualifying again, especially with the rise of the South American sides. Very sad.

Puja

Assuming they come last in the rather silly “Pacific” RWC qualifying (which is very probable), then they have to play 2 legs against the South America 2nd place, probably Chile. If they win, which they probably can but might not, they qualify.

If they lose that playoff, they enter a four-way tournament against Belgium (uh oh), South America 3 (probably Brazil), and the winner of a play-off between Africa 2 (Kenya or Zim, unless Namibia really fuck up) and UAE. UAE will come last, but the rest of that is really a crap-shoot. So I wouldn’t rule Canada out yet.