TORONTO — Rugby Canada has offered men’s national team coach Kieran Crowley a contract extension.
The 54-year-old New Zealander is currently pondering the offer, which was part of Rugby Canada’s Rugby World Cup review committee report. Rugby Canada says the report has been accepted by its board of directors.
Crowley, a former All Blacks fullback, took over the Canadian team in 2008. His current contract expires in January with the new offer extending the deal through August 2017, the anticipated month of Canada’s qualifying match for the 2017 Rugby World Cup.
Canada finished last in its pool at the Rugby World Cup in the fall, losing all four matches to Ireland, France, Italy and Romania. The Canadian men gave Italy a scare in a 23-18 loss and were edged by Romania 17-15 but were thumped by Ireland (50-7) and France (41-18).
Still the review committee saw positives from the World Cup.
"World Rugby data showed Canada was a consistent improver across a number of metrics, including — use of possession, points difference, set piece possession and competitiveness across 80 minutes versus Tier 1 nations (see attached report). While that did not translate into wins at RWC 2015, it does demonstrate the team and coaching staff played a type of rugby that can and will deliver results given the appropriate environment is provided."
Canada, a Tier 2 rugby nation that does not have a domestic pro league, is currently ranked 19th in the world.
Crowley’s contract offer comes with stipulations that include appointing a Canadian assistant coach and better communication between the Rugby Canada rugby department and the provinces regarding player selection and other matters.
The suggested changes come from the internal program review and World Rugby’s technical debrief from the World Cup.
The report also pointed to "a gulf between the sevens and fifteens programs."
"The performance environment and evolution of the sevens game makes it such that players can no longer move between sevens to fifteens at short notice and perform," Rugby Canada said. "This is not a reflection on the players ability per se, but the fact the sevens daily training environment conditions players to play a high-performance sport that is significantly removed from the fifteens game.
"World Sevens Series commitments mean players are unable to play sufficient meaningful minutes of fifteens rugby to perform at the level required to win RWC fixtures, or any test match for that matter."
Elite rugby nations have separate seven- and 15-man programs. Crowley and sevens coach Liam Middleton are well aware of the gap between the two games but Canada has traditionally not had the depth to separate the talent pools.