Sevens players boycott Rugby Canada training

Langford-based players upset by changes

Rugby Canada’s plan to have one centralized pool of men’s players rather than having separate 15s and sevens training squads is off to a rocky start.

A source said 13 of the sevens players have boycotted training in Langford and secured legal representation out of concerns their pay is being reduced and their side of the sport is being minimized.

Several months of back and forth between Rugby Canada and the player dissidents have not solved the impasse.

The sevens players’ previous contracts expired at the end of August and they are balking at the new version. Rugby Canada CEO Allen Vansen acknowledges that some of the sevens players are being offered less compensation, saying it is necessary in order to spread the organization’s limited resources among the entire player pool.

Vansen, while sympathetic to those whose lot is changing under the new framework, says Rugby Canada has no alternative. And that it would move on as needed to field a team if the current crop of sevens players continue to dig their heels in.

Co-captains Nate Hirayama and Harry Jones, meanwhile, took to social media to bang the drum for the sevens game — seen as taking a back seat to the 15s game under the reorganization.

“It’s 2018. 7s is no longer just a development tool. We have to get with the times or we’re going to get left behind,” Hirayama tweeted above a picture of the Canadian team celebrating its victory at the 2017 Singapore Sevens.

Jones’s tweet contained another photo of Singapore celebrations that showed the players hoisting coach Damian McGrath in the air.

“These players and staff have dedicated their lives and careers for moments like these. All we want is to keep chasing our dreams,” Jones said.

The sevens team members are looking into forming a players’ association, a move Vansen said Rugby Canada would not oppose.

In August, Rugby Canada announced it would centralize a group of 40 to 50 men under contract “to maximize the development of Canada’s men’s national team players.”

The two squads essentially have trained apart in Langford with separate coaches — with some 17 carded athletes in the sevens squad and up to 30 non-carded players in the 15s — although there has been some movement between the two. Canada’s top 15s talent plays professionally overseas.

The reorganization is an admission that Canada does not have the depth to run the two programs separately — and also that Rugby Canada has to focus more on the 15s program to maintain badly needed World Rugby funding.

The reorganization has pitted the 15s against the sevens with a source describing the current situation as “toxic.”

One cut reduction has the Vancouver sevens participation fee from $5,000 to $500. It is particularly galling to the seven players given the revenue the tournament produces for Rugby Canada.

Such a cut is big for players who make only $1,765 (senior) or $1,060 (developmental) a month in carding money. Rugby Canada offers a monthly “top-up” of $1,200 or $500 but, under the new blended player pool arrangement, only to a maximum of eight players for each of the senior and developmental categories per year.