‘It’s a fun game, fun people’
CANADA SEVENS: Tevaughn Campbell’s journey from the CFL to scoring rugby tries
When it comes to Tevaughn Campbell, Canada men’s rugby sevens head coach Damian McGrath is totally honest: he’s never coached an athlete like this before.
Sure, he’s had lightning quick players.
But he’s never had an athlete arrive in his squad with zero rugby background.
The official rosters provided to World Rugby offer a good reminder of that fact : players usually have their home club listed and in Campbell’s case, yes, he’s down as coming from the Montreal Alouettes.
“I think I’m getting more comfortable,” he said this week, after his team flew in to Vancouver from Las Vegas. “It’s not as foreign. And it’s a fun game, fun people.”
The thing is, a year ago, Campbell didn’t even know what rugby sevens was.
Credit Robin MacDowell, former national team player, now rugby sevens coach, with making the score.
Campbell, a native of Scarborough, Ont., played university football at the University of Regina and also ran track.
Before being drafted by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2015, Campbell shattered the 40-yard sprint record at the CFL draft combine.
It was during a gym session at the University of Regina that MacDowell first spotted him.
“Damian told me he was looking for somebody fast,” MacDowell said. “I called him and said ‘I got a guy.’”
That was little over a year ago. MacDowell cornered Campbell and immediately showed him clips of American speedsters Perry Baker and Carlin Isles, both of whom are football converts. Then the coach made a bold call: let’s get him to Vancouver to take in the 2017 Canada Sevens.
Campbell flew out, and was impressed by what he saw. McGrath moved quickly to invite him along for the Hong Kong Sevens and then the Singapore Sevens, which Canada went on to win, their first World Rugby tournament title.
Campbell returned to the CFL after that — he was traded to the Alouettes during the summer — but sevens never left his mind.
And now Campbell has four tries to his name, including a pair in his team’s final match on Sunday at the USA Sevens in Las Vegas, a heartbreaking final-play loss to France.
“People look at raw athletic ability and think it can just translate,” McGrath said. “What he’s done has outstripped my hopes already.”
In Las Vegas Baker played a starring role. That came as no surprise, given that Baker’s the reigning World Rugby men’s sevens player of the year.
He scored a dazzling try in the semi final, beating four Fijian defenders on a scoring run that started in the shadow of his own goal-line.
Baker’s coach, Mike Friday, is cautious when looking to compare the two players.
“(Campbell) is more akin to Carlin as he had to learn on the circuit. Perry (Baker) has the benefit of learning behind closed doors for five years before coming to us.”
The key to transitioning players from one sport to another is to “focus on what they can do rather than what they can’t do ... that’s the public perspective as well as when coaching them,” Friday added.
Campbell has already come a long way, but his coach would like to see what another 12 months of rugby-focused training might do.
“I think he could be the kind of player Canada has rarely seen in sevens.” But the plan is for Campbell to return to his CFL life in a month or so. He still makes far more money playing for the Alouettes, there’s just no getting around that, his coach said.
So for now, Campbell is learning as much as he can. “It’s like he’s studying for an exam,” McGrath said.
Campbell said he watches a lot of video, both of himself and of other players. Given his football background, that makes a lot of sense. “I’m my biggest critic.”
“I look at all the guys who are game changers,” he said. “I try to see how … they expose the defence.”
“I’ve learned that to not try to make every play. You’ll get there in time.”
The off-field experience, of going to a new city for a week, of taking in new cultures alongside training for the weekend’s main event, and of course bonding with teammates, has been the biggest surprise.
“It’s not like football, where you just fly in, fly out for a game,” he said. “I’m really liking the tour experience. And this is a great team to be on.”
Yes, he’ll be going back to the CFL, but he’s hoping he’ll be back in sevens — and he’s also going to carry a message with him.
“I’m going to try to sell the whole CFL on sevens.”