Canada's trouble in managing both 15's and 7's

The major problems behind Canada's failure to win at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, were not necessarily coaching ones as reaction would suggest. But what the tournament possibly showed was the need to find a better relationship between the 15's and 7's programs.

As you might expect, the reaction from Canadian fans towards their winless World Cup campaign has been kind to their coach Kieran Crowley, just as it hasn't been for much of the past year.

But too much of that angry reaction has centred around just simplistically calling for the heads of the coaching staff, failing to take into account the circumstances they've been forced to work with.

The simple fact is that Canada putting so much of their elite domestic player base into their 7's program may not lead to the best results from a 15's perspective.

One thing Crowley touched upon after the Italy game is that "we've got players out there in key positions who are only having 5 or 6 games at 15's in the last three years, and we're getting on to the big stage and having teams who play 40-odd games a year".

In that particular case he was almost certainly referencing fly half Nathan Hirayama.

Prior to the PNC, in the three seasons since the last World Cup, Hirayama had just 5 caps and only 2 starts for Canada at 15's, compared to 61 caps spread over many tournaments for Canada at 7's.

There were several other players in the national team who were also full time members of the 7's circuit, who whilst most having played more than that particular example, the point would still stand that those players don't play a great deal of 15's outside the national team.

In this year's Canadian Rugby Championship, which in theory would be the time when potential players competing for national teams spots go up against each other,  7 of the 31 man Rugby World Cup squad (John Moonlight, Phil Mack, Nathan Hirayama, Liam Underwood, Ciaran Hearn, Conor Trainor and Harry Jones) were not actually named in any squad.

The only 7's player who did play in the CRC was Nanyak Dala, and that was due to him coming back after an injury ruled him out of the 7's season.

All those players are full time professionals, but there is a distinction between a 7's player and a 15's player and there's been less and less crossover in recent years.

The conditioning, the type of action, and many of the more detailed parts of the skillset are completely different.

Phil Mack & Nathan Hirayama here
with the RWC 7's plate in 2013, both
regulars on the 7's circuit and also
formed a 9/10 combination against
Romania at the full RWC 2 years on.

Yet over the last 30 minutes against Romania, Canada ended up with a scenario where both the half backs in positions key to dictating a game, were full time 7's players, playing in a downpour, and the Romanians hounded them down with pressure which led to panic and errors.

In the second half, at one point 6 of the side were off the 7's circuit, playing against a determined, experienced Romanian side in wet, slippery conditions that was lending itself towards an attritional game.

But Canada, playing with a 15-0 lead, could not play to the situation, and were taking quick tap penalties from inside their own half, and still throwing the ball wide inside their own half with a one point lead and just 5 minutes left.

Kieran Crowley reacts to a tactical howler from one of his players

That's simply comes from poor game management from players who aren't playing 15's week in week out on the domestic scene like the Romanians would have done.

In fact there is literally no other side in the tournament that would put 7's players in such pivotal positions in such a tight game in those sort of conditions (although they could have actually gained experience of tight games in those conditions when playing Japan in 2013 ... if they weren't at the 7's Rugby World Cup instead).

Canada won the Pan Am Games 7's,
albeit all the other serious opposition
prioritised 15's RWC preparation
where there was a potential clash.

Nor would any other side for that matter, delay players joining the squad for preparation for the PNC to play Pan American Games. Conversely, Argentina pulled Santiago Cordero out of that competition after injury to Manuel Montero, with Agustín Pichot saying it was down on their priority list with resources focused on 15's.

Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are limited to locally based players even though particularly the first two are serious players in the shorter form. Japan 7's team only really picks Yoshikazu Fujita from the 15's team, and even then it's only on the terms of 15's program and more of a guest player than a full time member on the circuit.

Romania and Georgia are totally apathetic about 7's. Whilst all Tier 1 teams now run full time 7's teams with virtually entirely different personnel to 15's.

USA take it much more seriously, and would be the nearest to Canada with 5 full time 7's players in their squad.

But the difference for the USA is none of them were in key positions like 9 or 10, and aside from Andrew Durutalo most were just bench/squad players who's only start came when a second XV was fielded against South Africa, and unlike Canada all were pulled out of the Pan American Games.

So Canada were unique in their approach to any other nation in not just the amount they had, but the prominence of the roles 7's players were asked to play.

You could argue it was Crowley's fault as a selector, but there were no real alternatives from his player pool.

For example at 10, who were the other options against Romania? Underwood, another 7's player who was injured. Jones, another 7's player who's more of a full back now and would have been totally ill suited to that type of game at 10. Parfrey, another 7's player. The only possible option from outside the 7's circuit, Braid, also injured.

With nearly all the elite domestic player base operating as full time 7's players, Crowley has no choice. It's hard to imagine he was the one who was sending players from the PNC to play Pan American games.

There were also rumours of Rugby Canada encouraging the selection of 7's players despite lack of game time in 15's as well.

The conflict between 7's and 15's continues to be a major issue for Canada, but as other sides with less of a battle continue to improve their programs there will come a time where they may be forced to split the two to a greater degree.

Jeff Hassler has become a popular
player with Ospreys supporters, and
improved a lot since joining them,
but would he have made the same
progress if he had stayed on the 7's
circuit playing a very different code.

If the Ospreys had never seen potential in Tyler Ardron and Jeff Hassler, they would have still been on the 7's circuit too. As would have Taylor Paris if he hadn't been signed by Glasgow and Agen.

There's no way those players would have seen their potential in 15's playing 7's for most of the year, and indeed all of them had improved a lot by the end of their first full season. Others will not know their potential though playing 15's part time.

The juggling between 7's and 15's continues to be a major issue for Canada to address. It's leaving the side inexperienced tactically in certain situations, and with a chunk of players having to adjust to a different form of the game, it's taking longer for Canada particularly the backs to gel together compared to other sides.

Although with Connor Braid, another who improved significantly this year, but was released by Glasgow for playing the World Cup (which unfortunately ended after just 12 minutes with injury) and is now returning back to the 7's circuit, suggests for now the pattern will continue.

It will be tough for any coach to deal with this, which is why those focusing on the coach have got it wrong.

Captain Tyler Ardron picked up a
fresh knee injury within 20 minutes
against France. The biggest loss out
from several injuries that hit Canada
over the course of the World Cup.

There are very few of coaches out there within Canada's price range who could coach a tired, broken side with so many injuries including the star player Ardron, with so many part time 15's players, including the half backs, and a vulnerable scrum to close out a victory in soaking, rainy conditions against a fresh, experienced Romanian side with a big pack, and that had very few injuries.

Canada actually for the most part performed much better than in the PNC and warm ups, and should have had two wins. But a rotten run of luck continues to follow the side with numerous players including Ardron, Braid, Paris, Evans and Hassler all missing games with injuries or playing through injuries. Bumping into George Clancy against Italy, the ref who's been ditched from major Tier 1 games for his incompetency, against Italy with a few calls going against them.

This group of Canada's has some good talents, but it's adjustments in approach to the 15's team that needs to happen, and it's not necessarily all the coaches fault.

Results have not gone Crowley's way
over the past 2 years, but realistically
there are not a lot of other coaches
within Canada's price range who
would have done significantly better
under the circumstances.

Where Crowley didn't help himself though was by putting so much emphasis on the World Cup, so that half strength lineups and heavy rotation was seen at points in the PNC and warm ups ahead of results as first priority. That was always a risk, especially when the form guide suggested Romania would be difficult opponents, and a winless tournament always a distinct possibility.

But overall, it should be remembered, that in spite of many domestic based players spending much of the year on 7's, and often lack of time with this European based players, along with a wretched run of injury issues to influential players. Canada has actually come very close to 6 Nations scalps against Scotland and Italy within the past 18 months, before Crowley took over they were not getting remotely close to that.

Even if Crowley does now leave at the end of his contract, it's worth remembering Canada are a much better side now than they were when he took charge, regardless of the bogus rankings rubbish BC Rugby News put forward.