How are you? 

Just dandy thanks!  Busy working to get things organized for the 2008 season.

President of the Niagara Thunder in the Rugby Canada Super League, what does the role entail? 

Primarily I manage the team.  I take care of the administration, represent the team with other interested groups, such as Rugby Canada, Rugby Ontario, Rugby Canada Super League, etc.  I am responsible for bringing on assistants including team managers, coaches and so on.

As the Niagara Thunder is a composite side from various unions, is hard to balance the politics or does everyone pull in the same direction? 

We enjoy a very good level of support from the clubs.  We work hard to be as inclusive as possible in our selection, training and information exchanges.  In return we have garnered a good deal of respect from very many players and club officials.

The Thunder were Eastern Conference champions last season before losing out in the Grand Final to the Prairie Fire, Are the side equipped to go one better this coming season? 

We have a very young team and some outstanding players.  Our challenge is to keep the talent pool at a high level because we tend to lose players to the National Senior Men’s Team programs.  For example in the last 2 years we have lost 4 players permanently to Rugby Canada on a permanent basis and at least another half dozen to the NA/4 program which tends to overlap our playing season and therefore we find ourselves making good use of the depth in our squad.  Fortunately we seem to attract a continuing influx of very talented players. 

We worked hard to beat the Rock last year and succeeded in style.  Unfortunately we had not thought through the challenge of the final.  Our young players were a tad too confident going in and when the going got really tough, with the Fire forcing "slow ball" and thereby taking away our expansive running game, we were unable to readjust our tactics quickly enough.  On the bright side we earned respect and learned from the experience. 

Will we continue to improve; I think we are very capable of a second visit to the final and hopefully we can get the job done next time.

Your under 21 development team the “Niagara Lightening”, are you seeing many players coming through to the Thunder from this side? 

Again, we have a very close relationship with the players and coaching staff of the lightning team.  Several players have played for both Thunder and Lightning during the season.  The average age of Thunder is a tad under 23, in last years final we had 6 of the 22 players were under 20 and of those 4 were 18.

You are also secretary of the RCSL, what do the next 5 years have in store for this competition? 

For the moment and mainly due to several factors the next 2 to 5 years are not clear.  Due largely to widely differing weather patterns the rugby season in Canada is staggered across the country creating complications when setting schedules and even more so when having to take into consideration the impact on both club rugby and Rugby Canada programs such as the North American 4. 

The result is that there is a bottleneck in the demand for players during the season. This subject has and continues to be discussed in depth by all parties with the intent of trying to find a common and acceptable time of year to run the program with the optimum performance result. The NA/4 is now entering its 3rd and final year of the current agreement between Rugby Canada (RC) and the International Rugby Board (IRB).  There is no doubt that the inclusion of the NA/4 program has created a severe impact on the RCSL and club rugby competitions.  There is much debate regarding the potential expansion of the NA/4 and Rugby Canada and the IRB together with Rugby USA will be renegotiating the terms and performance of this program over the next several months.  Clearly if the NA/4 were to expand to an NA/6 or 8 team program, more demands on elite players would have an even greater impact on the RCSL format.   The RCSL has been operating for 10 years and is the only coast to coast competition in Canada.

It is a very successful operation and makes a significant contribution to player development and enjoyment.  Once decisions are finalised between RC and the IRB, we will revisit the format and if necessary optimise the program to compliment.   This factor combined with the IRB's introduction of an under 20 world cup competition has been the motivation for the inclusion of an under 20 development segment of the RCSL.  In 2007 the league was an under 21, in 2008 it will be an under 20 league.  Obviously the next 5 years is largely dependent on what decisions the IRB, RC and to some extent Rugby USA decide to do.

Do you see the game ever being fully professional in Canada and do you think this would be the only way Canada will break into and maintain a top 10 world ranking?

If you asked me if I would like to see that happen, the answer is absolutely yes.  Canada can produce the elite athletes, but we are starved of very high level competition on an ongoing basis.  The problem is rugby is pretty far down on the visibility and interest of the public.  Consequently the game is largely funded by rugby people with the desire to improve the game as best they are able.  Major sponsorship is hard to attract, but essential to promote and develop the game.

 I believe we can get there and we need to look and learn from others and find ways to leverage the Canadian difference into a successful result.  The recent success of the Argentineans at the world cup, i.e. 3rd place in the world speaks volumes.  Less than a decade ago, Canada was very competitive with them, they have left us behind.  Their success proves what is possible and hopefully we can find ways to emulate some of their success.  

Rugby in Canada is strong, but not as strong as it can and should be.  To improve we need a major influx of money to provide a platform for the players to be able to give full-time dedication to their development including many more high level games.  If only I had all the answers and the money to back it up!!!

Dave, Thanks for your time.

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