Still in the running
Niagara Falls native Ray Barkwill still playing professionally and for national team at age 37
Ray Barkwill isn’t rushing into retirement now that he’s on the over-the-hill side of 35.
No, the Niagara Falls native and Brock University isn’t about to replace Gatorade with Geritol as his go-to beverage
While Barkwill, a teacher by profession, a rugby player by passion, concedes his age is “toward the upper” range for the sport at the world-class level, he feels the wear and tear on his body compared to players the same age makes him a young 37.
And a very young one at that. Young enough to be selected to start at the hooker position for Team Canada in an exhibition game against New Zealand Maori last night in Vancouver.
Young enough to receive a contract last month to play professionally for the Seattle Seawolves, an expansion team in Major League Rugby.
Young enough to feel confident he will achieve his goal of representing Canada two years from now at the World Cup in Japan.
“In the grand scheme of things, I think I haven’t had the wear and tear like a player of that age because I wasn’t abusing my body between 19 and 25,” Barkwill said. “I think I have a longevity in the fact I haven’t got so beat up over the years.
“We manage how much I play, and how much I don’t play.”
“I don’t overdo it anymore. I play the amount that’s needed to keep me sharp and fit.”
Barkwill, who played professionally in Australia as well as in Sacramento, has been living in Langford, B.C., north of Victoria, for the past years. He said the location is ideal, close to both Rugby Canada’s high-performance centre on Vancouver Island and his pro team in Seattle.
Salaries in professional rugby are across the spectrum depending on a players’ individual skills to the league in which they play. The highest-paid player in the world earns about 1 million pounds, about $1.7 million Cdn.
“You definitely need to have a side gig, but there is money to be made,” he said. “It all depends on where you kind of sit.”
Barkwill supplements his salary from the Seawolves, stipend from the national team by working as a supply teacher in the Sooke School District, also near Victoria.
“I mean, I am doing all right with my U.S. contract and I obviously get paid with the Canadian national team, too.”
Barkwill played football at Westlane Secondary School in his native Niagara Falls but opted to take the rugby path because there were more opportunities to take that sport further.
“After high school football, what are you going to play?” he asked. “Is everyone going to be good enough to go to university football?
“Is there club football? No.” Rugby at the club level, in comparison, can be “long-lasting.
“There are old boys playing at 60, 70 years old,” said Barkwill, who played club rugby with the Niagara Wasps and the Niagara Thunder, said. “Community rugby goes from a young age on through, and that’s the difference – rugby has something to offer outside of school.”
“You don’t have that in football. The community of our sport, the history of our sport is beyond none.
“Outside of North America, no one knows what North American football is.”
Rugby, he pointed out, is the third-most watched sport in the world after World Cup soccer and the Summer Olympics.
He said the number of stamps on his passport as a result of rugby are “ridiculous”
“I have been very blessed and lucky to have the opportunity to see things, to experience things.”
Barkwill, a professional since 2000 and a member of the Canadian national senior men’s team, started “putting some work” into the sport after graduating from Brock with a bachelor’s degree in physical geography.
“I started applying more details to the skills.”
Hookers are among the players who make things happen on the rugby pitch. They’re the players who throw the ball and run in and out of scrums.
However, while position invites contact, Barkwill doesn’t think the career of a hooker is any shorter than any other player in rugby.
“I think every position has wear and tear,” he said. “The faster guys exploded a little more, but the contact in the game is pretty much equal between everyone.”
Though different tactics and game plans may be executed, playing for the national team in his native Canada and professionally in the U.S. by and large complement each other.
“The fact that you’re playing at such a high level all year can only help your game.”
Barkwill described international rugby as the “pinnacle of the sport” and said while pro teams are stocked with many young players developing to improve their skills to the next level, there isn’t much of a dropoff.
“The quality of games is so high. You’re just taking the best of the best, and putting them against each other.”
Barkwill played professionally in Australia while continuing his post-graduate studies at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. He was able to use that experience after returning home to Canada to improve, “not just as a player, but as a human being.”
“It humbles the heck out of you. When you come back to Canada, you realize how lucky we are being from Canada.”
His long-term partner is Laura Russell, originally from Bolton, Ont., is a member of the Canadian senior women’s national team.
“We complement each other and we challenge each other,” he said. “She opens my eyes to see things differently, and vice versa.
“We try not to talk shop all the time, but it’s hard not to.”
His goal is to play for Canada at the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
“That’s my goal and I’m pretty firm that will be my last grasp at playing at the highest level,” he said. “I’m trying to transition into the coaching end on a more fulltime role.”
He played for Canada at the 2015 World Cup in England.
Despite an upset at the hands of Australia recently, New Zealand remains the gold standard of rugby at the highest level.
“They’re basically driving rugby like Canada drives hockey.”
Community rugby goes from a young age on through, and that’s the difference – rugby has something to offer outside of school.” Canadian national team member Ray Barkwill, 37