For football players a whole new ball game
Skills gained on gridiron can translate well to rugby pitch
“I think a lot of football players should get into playing rugby. I think they’d love it.” JORDAN WILSON-ROSS MEMBER OF CANADIAN RUGBY TEAM AND FORMER FOOTBALL PLAYER
OAKVILLE— Learning to carry the ball like a rugby player was a transition for Jordan Wilson-Ross. As a star running back he had grown used to tucking it in one arm when in open field, but joining the rugby team at Banting Memorial High School in Alliston meant toting it in two hands, like an option quarterback.
But making defenders miss felt familiar, and many of the spin moves and stutter steps that brought Wilson-Ross football success also carried him to the national rugby team. Sunday he can earn his fifth cap when Canada plays Italy in a test match at BMO Field.
As Canada and the U.S. seek to strengthen their rugby programs, converted football players have become more common. While rugby teams look to football for athletes whose skills will translate, rugby can advance the careers of athletes whose gridiron careers plateau.
“Learning to play football, then playing rugby is a huge benefit because . . . not a lot of guys have that technique with their (footwork),” says Wilson-Ross, a former running back at the University of Ottawa. “I think a lot of football players should get into playing rugby. I think they’d love it.”
With rugby sevens rejoining the Olympics, a professional rugby union circuit starting in the U.S., and a rugby league franchise coming to Toronto next March, crossover opportunities abound.
Former Arena Football League player Perry Baker anchors a U.S. sevens squad that is an outside threat for a medal in Rio, while the New England Patriots’ Nate Ebner joined the U.S. sevens program this spring. National Rugby League star Jarryd Hayne played last season with the San Francisco 49ers, and spent this summer trying out for Fiji’s sevens team.
Sunday afternoon Canada will dress both Wilson-Ross and Tom Dolezel, a former defensive tackle at Western University who committed to rugby full-time after a failed tryout with the Calgary Stampeders.
Like Wilson-Ross, Dolezel juggled both sports through university but saw his rugby game blossom after his football career fizzled. He followed a friend’s suggestion to move to New Zealand in 2009 and over the next year he picked up skills and lost weight. Then he contacted Rugby Canada and persuaded them to consider him for the national team.
“Next thing you know I was playing for Canada and going on a Japan tour,” says Dolezel, who plays prop for Canada.
“There’s not much football after university . . . but I wasn’t done with sports.”
He will face Italy as part of a Canadian squad now ranked 17th worldwide. A narrow loss to Japan and last Saturday’s 46-21 rout of Russia propelled Canada past the U.S. in the International Rugby Board’s world rankings.
The match also marks Canada’s first at BMO since it was remodelled to accommodate the CFL.
While the playing surface only needs some cosmetic changes to switch from Thursday’s football game to Sunday’s rugby match, players who make the change undergo a more profound physical makeover.
Dolezel had to drop 30 pounds to reach his ideal rugby weight, while Wilson-Ross says any football player transitioning to the pitch better get used to running.
“You don’t need to be cardiovascular fit in football,” Wilson-Ross says. “The plays are only five to 10 seconds long. A lot of football guys think they could hack it out here but I really don’t think they (could). We would just run them back and forth a couple of times and see how good they are at actually breathing at that point.”