Rugby sa国际传媒 is hoping a blast from the past reignites the men鈥檚 national team program.
The Victoria-based Pacific Pride development program, which helped sa国际传媒 reach a steady stature in the second tier of world rugby, is being revived.
Officially relaunched as the Rugby sa国际传媒 Performance Academy, the program鈥檚 Langford-based main team will be named Pacific Pride in honour of the former team that played in the sa国际传媒 Premiership from 1996 to 2005.
The new Pacific Pride will begin play in the sa国际传媒 Premier League next season out of Westhills Stadium.
The original Pacific Pride, essentially the Canadian U-23 team, helped contribute the lion鈥檚 share of players who played for sa国际传媒 in the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 World Cups.
sa国际传媒 has since seen its position steadily erode to the point where it became the 20th and final qualifier for the 2019 World Cup this fall in Japan with future World Cup qualifications looking precarious as nations such as the U.S. and Uruguay surge ahead in the Americas region. It is hoped the new Pacific Pride program will help stem that Canadian slide.
The reboot of the program will be largely made up of uncapped players from across sa国际传媒 who are projected to be one to three years away from playing at the senior international level. It will run 10 months of the year at the Rugby sa国际传媒 National Training Centre in Langford. It will be funded by Rugby sa国际传媒 through its existing national team centralization budget.
鈥淚dentifying and working with players in a daily training environment will help them make the technical, physical and mental developments necessary to grow into elite players who can be successful in Major League Rugby, sevens or abroad, and contribute to improving our senior national teams鈥� world rankings,鈥� said Canadian team head coach Kingsley Jones.
The sentiment is widespread that the time for the return of Pacific Pride is now.
鈥淲e have heard consistently over the last few years from our rugby community about the importance and value an academy program brought to our sport,鈥� said Rugby sa国际传媒 chairman Tim Powers, in a statement.
鈥淲e listened and agreed. The return of the Pacific Pride Academy will be key as we work to improve our world rankings in the coming years.鈥�
An optimistic, but cautious, note was struck by John MacMillan, co-coach of Pacific Pride from 1998 to 2005.
鈥淚t needs to be done correctly,鈥� said MacMillan, now president of 94 Forward, which administers the legacy fund from the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games.
鈥淲hat is required [for Canadian men鈥檚 rugby] is a complete strategy and plan. This is one piece of it, as it was with the original Pacific Pride program. It is one piece of many pieces that matter.鈥�
But the bottom line is that a key building block that helped in the past is being reinstated, and not a moment too soon.
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