Bruce in New Zealand with U18 sevens team
Seventh international rugby tourney for TASSS athlete
Braden Bruce racked up the air miles in 2018.
The 17-year-old Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School student got off a plane from Dubai last week and four days later boarded another bound for New Zealand. That’s after trips to Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Saskatoon and New York City earlier in the year all in furtherance of a budding rugby career.
He is currently in Auckland, New Zealand with classmate Kal Sager and Canada’s U18 sevens team preparing for the 2018
World School Sevens Tournament Friday and Saturday where they’ll face teams from New Zealand, Australia, Tonga and Fiji.
“It’s super exciting,” Bruce said. “It’s kind of been my breakout season. This will be my seventh tournament this year and fourth or fifth tour. It’s awesome. It never really gets old. There are a lot of new experiences every time.”
With all the experience gained this year, Bruce says he feels more confident in his abilities and of his place in the program heading into this latest tournament. It will also be the first time he’s played with Sager on a national team.
“Kal is my best friend,” Bruce said. “It’s kind of been our plan all along to play for the Canadian team together.”
In Dubai Bruce played for a team called the North American Lions who won the Dubai Sevens U19 Invitational against teams from South Africa, Germany, Poland and another North American team.
“We played the final in front of 40,000 people,” Bruce said. “It was totally cool.
“I didn’t know what to expect but it was really cool to see a new culture. We got to do some excursions. It’s very nice there, there is a lot of money there. It’s pretty wild. It was so diverse with people from all over the world there to see their teams play. There was a really good vibe.”
He was selected for the team after his Markham-based tournament team The Misfits reached the final of the North American Sevens Tournament in Salt Lake City. An all-star team was selected from that tournament to play in Dubai.
The Misfits won four tourneys in the fall in Brantford, Markham, Ottawa and New York City.
In February he played for Canada’s U18 sevens team for the first time helping them defeat the United States in a qualifying series for the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina. Despite winning the qualifier the team did not receive the funding to attend the Youth Olympics.
Four days after returning from Las Vegas he left for B.C. to play with the Ontario U18 sevens team in the Canadian championship. Next, he played with Ontario’s U19 15s team at the Canadian Rugby Championships in Saskatoon, Sask.
When he returns from New Zealand it won’t be long before he’s off again. He’s headed to San Diego on Dec. 26 with Canada’s U18 15s for a series against U.S. teams.
On top of all of that, Bruce is also investigating opportunities to attend university in either Wales or Australia. It’s all with a mind to pursuing a pro career overseas — something not many Canadians have been able to do.
“I’d be playing with the university team and training with them. They are like feeder teams for the pro teams. You get a lot of exposure directly to scouts and coaches of pro teams.”
Lakefield’s Tyler Ardron was a rare example of a player signed out of Canada. He starred for The Ospreys in Swansea, Wales in the Guinness Pro 12 league before moving last year to the Chiefs in New Zealand in the Super Rugby League considered the highest calibre league in the world.
“If you go overseas there is a lot better opportunity of getting a pro contract than if you stay in Canada,” Bruce said.