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Canada’s Tyler Ardron explains reasons for shock Test return
By Jon Newcombe
Back in December, the chances of Tyler Ardron playing for Canada again looked slim.
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Seemingly forgotten by his country, the back-row forward’s focus was firmly on Castres and his Top 14 commitments. He said as much in an end-of-year interview with RugbyPass but a day after it was published, Rugby Canada’s CEO Nathan Bombrys got in touch and the wheels were put in motion for Canada’s best player to lend his weight to their latest Men’s Rugby World Cup qualification campaign, which begins in Calgary on Friday evening against the USA in the Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup.
“Credit to him (Bombrys), that’s what he did, he called me right up, and I talked to the coach right after, and the whole thing went well,” Ardron confirmed.
Now coached by Steve Meehan, an Australian with vast European experience, Canada are hoping that the failure to qualify for the 2023 World Cup – the first time they’ve not featured in the sport’s most prestigious event – is an aberration that won’t be repeated.
The return of No.8 Ardron for the first time since the last World Cup cycle, and the inclusion of another experienced pro at the highest level, lock Evan Olmstead, is a statement of the team’s intent to upset the odds and get their qualifying campaign off to the perfect start against an Eagles team ranked nine places higher in 16th.
Given the high stakes, Canada could ill afford for Ardron to continue to be a bystander, and the 34-year-old is delighted to be back involved for the first time in nearly four years.
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“Now I have a slightly different vision and see things differently now that I have been back here for 10 days. It’s been awesome, I have really liked it,” Ardron told RugbyPass from Calgary.
“I guess I thought, what is my legacy going to be at the end of my career? If I’m not going to play another World Cup, or even if I am, it is important that Canada gets back there, not only for me as a player or the group that’s here, but for the future of the organisation.
“I want a young guy to have a chance that I had, and if we slip down to 25th/30th in the world, no one is ever going to get that chance.”
The years that Ardron was unavailable, partly through his own choice and partly because of choices made by others, haven’t been kind, with Canada falling out of the top 20-ranked nations after a long run of poor results under Meehan’s predecessor, Kingsley Jones. The last of his 38 caps was a low point, a 33-24 defeat to Chile, which cost them their place at the World Cup in 2023.
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Even with the next tournament expanding to 24 teams, it’ll be a challenge for Canada to qualify directly through the Pacific Nations Cup this time around. The top three performing teams from Samoa, Tonga, the USA, and Canada will have their ticket to Australia stamped. As things stand, Canada are the last in the queue, having finished bottom of the PNC in 2024.
Ardron says communication between him and Meehan has been good.
“There was no pressure from him. He was like, ‘Listen, this is what I would like you to do, I would like you to be involved, here’s what I see, and we had a great conversation and a couple of after,” he revealed.
“His overall plan is to qualify for this Rugby World Cup and to put Rugby Canada in a better place than it was a year ago.
“The timing was right, the conversations were right, the vision for the future was right, and everything just came together and worked out that I could come back, and I wanted to.”
While the USA will go into Friday’s match as favourites, Canada were seconds away from beating a team of a similar standing last month, only losing by a point at home to Spain in Edmonton after Los Leones kicked a last-gasp penalty.
“I think it could be the catalyst, regardless of the outcome. Spain is a good team; the majority of their players are professional, and there are a lot of things we can take away from that,” said Ardron.
Almost a quarter (eight) of Ardron’s Test appearances have come against the Eagles, and he has only been on the winning side in three of them.
“The guys haven’t got the results lately, but there are still humans who put in a lot of hard work. You only get what you deserve, but I do believe they deserve a win this weekend.”
Over 10,000 tickets have been sold for the Eagles match, with Ardron’s ‘adopted’ family – the Hasslers – among the crowd. Ex-Canada wing Jeff Hassler, Ardron’s former teammate and housemate from their time together at Ospreys, was born in Calgary.
“It is a huge match. It doesn’t guarantee us anything, and it doesn’t rule us out if we can’t get a win. There is nothing to lose. If we get the win, it puts us exactly where we want to be.”
Ardron, who also had a spell in Super Rugby with the Chiefs, will return to France to start his sixth season at Castres straight after the game, which means he’ll miss the second PNC match against Japan in Sendai on August 30th. Castres begin their Top 14 campaign at home to Pau on September 6th.
Now fully immersed in the French way of life, Ardron knows which side his croissant is buttered on, with club taking precedence over country in what is his final season as a Castres player. “I wouldn’t take back my statement that if I had a quarter-final game with Castres and had to make a decision, I would make the same decision as I said before,” he explained.
“This is my last season. We play our first game on the 6th (of September), and I have fully bought in for this season. But after that, I am in no rush to make any decision.”
However, the prospect of playing in a third Rugby World Cup may lead him to put his retirement plans on hold for one more year.
“Things change so quickly in professional sport, it’s hard to say,” he admitted.
“The last time we talked, I was really committed to retiring after this season (2025/26). And I wouldn’t say I am ready to play another season, for sure, the year after, but the group of guys is so good, and I have really enjoyed it; I have been running around with a smile on my face for 10 days now, and I want to give back to the guys.
“When I start looking at it, it is only one more season, and to go out on that (the World Cup), it would be pretty special. It has been at the back of my mind for quite a while now.”
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