Canucks answer at 10 lies in English fifth tier
THE fifth tier of English rugby may seem an unlikely place for Canada to find the answer to their fly-half problem, but the Canucks hope they have finally found their man in Bedford Athletic’s Robbie Povey, .
While Joey Carberry’s rise from Leinster rookie to Ireland fly-half has been meteoric, it cannot compare to Povey’s ascent from National 3 Midlands to senior international rugby.
Rugby Scholl-educated Povey is a shock inclusion in Canada’s wider training squad for the upcoming Americas Rugby Championship despite not playing a single game of senior professional club rugby.
“We’ve got Argentina XV first up, the big one. We have to make sure we prepare well and get our systems right and then give it a good go,” Povey told The
Rugby Paper from the Canadian training base in Langford, Victoria.
“They are defending champions and we haven’t really got anything to lose. Hopefully we can use the tag of underdogs and get our home crowd behind us and push them all the way.”
Further home games against Chile and USA follow before Canada travel south to Uruguay and Brazil as they look to improve on their thirdplace finish at the inaugural ARC tournament.
Canadian qualified through his Montreal-born mother, 20-year-old Povey has won caps at U20 and A team level and now finds himself preparing for the Americas’ answer to the Six Nations.
Canada’s interest stems from a phone call from his father, Colin, a former Great Britain Water Polo international who, for the last 16 years, has been a director at Northampton Saints, where Robbie was once a junior academy player.
“I went to Canada one summer on a school rugby tour and on the back of my dad getting in touch, they sent someone to watch me play. Thankfully, they liked what they saw,” he said.
Even if Canucks’ coach Mark Anscombe opts to go with the more experienced Pat Parfrey and Gradyn Bowd as his two first-choice 10s at the ARC, Povey has no regrets at pinning his colours to the Canadian mast even if his non-EQP status might act as a deterrent to Premiership clubs signing him in the future.
If anything, the Oxfordborn playmaker believes playing for Canada will enhance his professional aspirations.
“Getting the chance to play international rugby is not something you want to pass up, so it was never really a factor,” Povey said.
“If I get the opportunity to play international rugby it will improve my game and, in the long-term, it might me more attractive to clubs.
“I’ve been trying to advertise myself around for a while now and play a bit of National One or Championship rugby.
“I had unofficial talks with Bedford Blues and I spoke with my former Saints academy coach, Ross Stewart, who is now at Cambridge, but joining them would have meant a four-hour round trip from Oxford where I was studying.
“There are a lot of guys my age coming through the academies so it is hard to make inroads. Hopefully they’ll start to take a bit more notice of me now.”