Canada men’s rugby coach Stephen Meehan signs extension with both challenge and opportunity in mind
Stephen Meehan harbours no illusions about the challenges of leading a Canadian national team.
He’s also ready to face them head on.
The Australian, who has coached Canada’s men’s rugby team since last year, signed an extension that carries him through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Rugby Canada announced Thursday.
“I think that, without those sorts of [challenges], life gets a little bit boring,” Meehan said. “But obviously, very pleased to arrive, qualify for the World Cup, and now setting our sights a little bit further down the road.”
After Canada missed the men’s rugby World Cup for the first time in over two decades in 2023, Meehan helped the squad qualify for next summer’s tournament in Australia, cementing his spot as leader of the program.
The 60-year-old joined Rugby Canada after 17 years of global experience including in England and France.
“When the opportunity was presented, it meant that firstly I had the opportunity to go through with this team to the World Cup, so that was very important,” Meehan said. “We qualified almost as early as we possibly could last year. But then off the back of that, I was still looking at ways of, OK, how do we find it? How do we make sure that we’ve got the talent that we’re going to provide opportunities for players to make sure that they have the opportunity of putting their best foot forward?”
Gathering talent all at once is one of those challenges Meehan will face over the next three summers, beginning with a trio of games in Edmonton next month for the Rugby Nations Cup.
Meehan counted players on his national team who play professionally in Canada, Uruguay, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, Ireland, Wales, England and France.
Not to mention that not every player, even when home, necessarily lives by the team training base in Langford, B.C. The goal before the World Cup is to see every potential roster player in the Canadia training environment.
In April, the federal government pledged $775 million to Canadian sport over the next five years. And while Meehan said the extra support didn’t factor into his decision to re-sign — after all, the money isn’t even in Rugby Canada’s bank account yet — it certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
“It does mean that we would be able to afford to get people together more frequently so that we can try and build those connections and understandings on and off the pitch, which is very important,” Meehan said.
Last summer, the Canadian women’s team fundraised $1 million for its own World Cup journey to England, where it eventually fell in the championship match against the home team.
Olivia Apps, a star scrum-half, told CBC Sports recently that extra funding could have provided that extra 1 per cent to reach the top of the podium.
Meehan said he has full faith in Rugby Canada to spend potential extra funding appropriately, listing doctors, strength and conditioning coaches and mental preparation as other uses.
He also mentioned the possibility of bringing players to Langford more often, where the women’s team more frequently trains.
“It’d be nice to have them work side by side so that they could maybe learn from one another or maybe they’d enjoy each other’s company or maybe they could share some experiences that they’ve had,” Meehan said.
He said it’s obvious what national-team success means to the women’s side when they rub shoulders.
“Their performances have been remarkable. A fantastic example of a team. So, not just their results, but the way they go about playing, the way that they enjoy one another’s company, their mentality, the way that they work for one another off the pitch as much as on the pitch,” he said.
The men’s team’s World Cup aspirations, however, aren’t quite as lofty as the women’s.
Meehan said the goal this summer is to continue climbing the world rankings from Canada’s current position of 25th. Come the World Cup, advancement from the group stage would be considered a success.
Canada is in Pool C with No. 5 Argentina, No. 9 Fiji and No. 17 Spain — the latter of whom it will also face in Edmonton. The Rugby Nations Tour represents the first of three blocks of games this summer.
Canadian rugby players Tyson Beukeboom and Taylor Perry were treated like rock stars at the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, where they captured a silver medal. But without full-time contracts or a domestic league back home, they are both unemployed and looking for work.
“We do know that some players will rotate in and out,” Meehan said. “So that’s a good thing for us. It gives us the opportunity to trial various things over the course of this year because we certainly want to know where we are next year — and next year is not a time to be experimenting. We will have everything in place and the direction will be, it’s pretty firm now, but it will be concrete next year.”
On a broader level, part of Meehan’s job is also to further integrate the sevens and 15s teams, similar to the women’s setup, which he pointed to as another challenge of alignment.
“We are grateful that Stephen has chosen to continue to develop this program and share his expertise across our men’s senior national team, sevens and age-grade programs — exemplifying our One Squad philosophy,” Rugby Canada CEO Nathan Bombrys said in a statement.
As he listed out his goals over the next three years, Meehan took the “one squad” idea even further.
He pointed to the rankings, to alignment, to Olympic qualification, which must still be achieved.
“And then I think the big one here is to have the rugby community look at the team, its efforts, its performances, its results and be really happy with the development of the team and where they are, certainly when I finish with the side,” Meehan said, “and of course setting it up for continued success or continued growth or improvement.”
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