Ardron helping Canada vie for World Cup spot
Not many pro athletes approaching their prime would take a pay cut to switch teams like Lakefield native Tyler Ardron.
The 26-year-old said he took almost 50 per cent less than offers he got in Europe in leaving The Ospreys of the Guinness Pro 12 league to join the Chiefs of New Zealand in the Super Rugby loop.
Ardron is home trying to help Canada clinch a spot in the next Rugby World Cup. He’ll suit up Saturday in Hamilton in the first game of a two-game qualifying series against the United States. The team with the higher aggregate score in their two-game set gains a World Cup berth. The loser will have to go into the Americas qualifying tournament.
Ardron said by phone Thursday there is bigger money in Europe but Super Rugby is considered the highest calibre. It features top club teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.
“The rugby in Europe is a bit different to the Southern Hemisphere,” said Ardron, who starred with the Ospreys for four years. “I knew about a year ago I was going to try to move on at the end of this season. I was just looking at where I wanted to go. There is France and the good lifestyle there but I was looking at the last World Cup and the top four teams there were from Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. One of the biggest sporting upsets ever was Japan over South Africa at the World Cup and Japan is also in that league. I was just looking to where I could play the best rugby and improve that part of my game.”
Ardron is bucking convention as Super Rugby players usually aspire to chase the money in Europe.
“it’s very, very rare for someone to go from Europe to that league. It usually goes the other way,” he said.
Financially, Ardron said he expects he’ll make up the difference in time.
“I’m still pretty young in my career so hopefully I’ve got about 10 seasons left. If I can do two of them there in the long run it could work out a lot better. The money is not what I’m going there for but once you’ve been there a couple of years being able to play at that standard coming back to Europe it will bump it up that much more.”
Right now, he wants to explore as many rugby experiences as possible. He thinks his style as a back row player fits Super Rugby.
“It’s going to be a lot faster. They don’t focus as much on scrums and driving line-outs; the slower aspects of the big, physical side of it. They focus a lot more on fast, exciting to watch (rugby). They move the ball a lot, a lot of running and kicking to recover the ball. No one is trying to win 6-3, the score there is in the 40’s a lot of the time. I’m much better suited to an open, fast game.”
Ardron says he’ll always be grateful to The Ospreys for giving him his first pro opportunity.
“It was a bit of a sad farewell. There was an understanding in the end,” he said. “They didn’t want me to leave and I considered staying around because I had set up so much in Wales over the past four years but when they heard the opportunity I was going to there was no second guessing from them.”
His immediate focus is Saturday’s game.
“It’s going to be so tight,’ he said. “It’s going to come down to who has the better day, really.
“We’re pretty evenly matched across the board.”