The future is bright for Canadian rugby

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In a suburb west of Victoria, the home base of Canadian rugby is quietly helping to boost the country's fortunes at various levels of the international game.

The Rugby Canada facility in Langford, B.C., which opened in 2012, enables senior national teams and development ranks to train in a temperate, year-round climate. Since relocating there, the women's sevens team in particular has enjoyed big gains – it now has a good shot at a medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Sevens – as opposed to rugby union's traditional 15 players a side – will be an Olympic sport in Rio de Janeiro, nearly a century after rugby was last part of the Games.

Canada finished third on the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series in each of the past two seasons. The team is third again this year, behind New Zealand and Australia, after two tournaments, with four more events to go in a schedule that includes a stop in Langford in April. If the team maintains its place in the Series' top four, it secures a berth at the Rio Olympics.

"Canadians will fall in love with the sport," said Dominick Gauthier, co-founder of Montreal-based B2Ten, a private funding organization that provides support to the rugby program. "It's so fast, it's dynamic and we're good."

Langford has become a training centre for rugby at all levels. In early March, there's a camp for promising teenage boys under 17, and two of the youngest and most exciting are 15-year-old twins from Toronto, Quenton and Owen Lavado. "It's our primary focus," Quenton said of rugby. "The camp's going to be huge for us."

The Lavado boys have played rugby since they were 6, inspired by their dad, Sven, who played at the University of Toronto and coaches junior rugby. "If you don't keep them active, they could get destructive," the senior Lavado said jokingly of his boys.

The twins' potential was spotted last summer at a national tournament in Calgary. "They were shining lights," said Andrew Plimer, head coach of Canada's eastern under-17 team. Owen was more physical, while Quenton's game sense and instincts stood out. "Considering they're twins, they're two very different rugby players," Plimer added.

Like hockey, it can get expensive.

The twins were in Las Vegas this past weekend at the largest rugby competition in North America, where their Ontario under-16 squad lost in a semi-final. Owen scored a try in two different matches; Quenton scored one. Along with the Langford camp and other training, the bill this year for them to play rugby will run about $7,000 a boy. Government support kicks in only if players make the under-20 team.

The emergence of young talent is a welcome sign for Rugby Canada, since the senior men's team has not enjoyed the same success as the senior women. Last season, the men's sevens team finished sixth, its best finish in 14 years, but the squad then lost its respected coach, Geraint John, to Australia.

Canada's men have fallen to 13th this season. In Las Vegas on the weekend, the fifth stop in the nine-tournament, October-to-May pro season, Canada had its best result this campaign, tying for seventh. Australia, meanwhile, defeated Canada 17-0 on its way to a fifth-place finish in Nevada; with John as the coach, Australia is fourth in the overall standings, up from eighth two seasons before.

For the men's 15s, the focus is the World Cup in England in September and October, where there's hope for a breakthrough. In 2011, Canada's men fared relatively well in a tough round-robin pool. The women's 15s squad scored World Cup success last year in France, where it defeated the host country 18-16 in the semi-final before finishing second in a 21-9 loss to England in the final.

The women's success has drawn investment. Own the Podium first put in $750,000 annually in 2011-12 and 2012-13 as part of its team-sport strategy to support the women's team's early gains. OTP then circled women's sevens as a 2016 medal contender, moved it to core funding and upped the investment to $1.7-million annually for the past two years. The men are also on the team-sport-strategy roster, with funding of $750,000 a year.

The budget of Rugby Canada has grown as it stages additional events, rising by more than a third to about $14-million in 2014 from about $10-million in 2012. The figure should climb higher as the women's sevens tournament in Langford in April will be the first in a series of four through 2018. Rugby Canada also plans four annual men's sevens tournaments in Vancouver.

The Langford facility, Rugby Canada CEO Graham Brown said, "has been a game changer." And more development is planned. The organization has raised about $2.5-million toward a goal of $7-million to add another building to the complex, with an elaborate gym and other amenities that include rooms to house several dozen athletes.

The teams still don't attract mainstream media attention. "Unless you're a rugby fan and seek it out, you're probably not aware of the women's success," said Meaghan Howat, manager of the national women's program.

But Canadians will be exposed to more rugby during the Pan American Games in Toronto in July. Canada's men's sevens won gold at the 2011 Pan Am Games, and the women compete at the event for the first time.

Rugby is building, Howat said, and the future looks promising. She was in Vegas on the weekend watching Canada's two women's development teams.

"The focus is on 2016," Howat said of the upcoming Olympics. "But it's also on 2020 and 2024."