Kevin Rouet has replaced Sandro Fiorino as Head Coach of Canada just seven months before the World Cup starts.
Jamie Levchuk, the interim CEO of Rugby Canada, explains this as a difficult decision, made in part because the other main job Fiorino had as lead of a development programme had to be ended because of financial pressures. But that cannot answer all the queries that are bound to arise after this quite unexpected news. Levchuk praises Fiorino for his service to RC over a decade, but his statement: ‘He will be missed and we wish him the best in his future endeavors’ hardly begins to explain this decision in the run-up to the biggest tournament of all. What are Canadian rugby people to make of it?
Fiorino took over from Francois Ratier as interim lead in 2017. It was his unenviable task to take an inexperienced young squad over to England to play three matches with minimal preparation. Unsurprisingly they lost all of them decisively. But he impressed enough to be given the job permanently and has led the Maple Leafs to a commanding position in world rugby.
Rouet is highly experienced, having been assistant coach for four years and filling other posts at Stade Bordelais and in Quebec. So he won’t be entering his new post cold, but the abrupt change is another unwelcome jolt to Canada’s system after the dismissal of John Tait as Head of the Sevens programme.
Canada are hoping to play six tests in the run-up to the RWC, preceded by a sequence of training sessions. Three so-called ‘Check-in Camps’ have already taken place for the east and west coasts, and for players operating abroad; that one finishes on 21 March. A squad of 40 will be selected in April for the Pacific Four Tournament (probably in May), then more gatherings as the summer advances.
