Canada veteran on impact of team’s 2019 RWC typhoon clean-up efforts

Canada hadn’t won a Men’s Rugby World Cup match in more than eight years when the side walked off the field on October 8, 2019, following a 66-7 defeat to eventual champions the Springboks in Kobe.

The Canadians had also suffered defeats to Six Nations side Italy and the then two-time reigning world champion All Blacks, but they had one more match scheduled in a brutal pool of death – a clash with Namibia they had been targeting.

But the opportunity to chase history in that Test never came, with an extremely powerful tropical cyclone making landfall. Typhoon Habibis produced damaging winds and heavy rain before dissipating on October 14.

World Rugby and the Japan 2019 Organising Committee made the decision to cancel pool stage matches between the All Blacks and Italy, England and France, and the Pool B fixture between the Canadians and Namibia in Kamaishi.

“There was some immediate disappointment,” Canadian centre Ben LaSage told RugbyPass this week, but “some things are bigger than rugby.” Canada instead spent their time helping out with the clean-up, as players grabbed shovels and did what they could to help others.

“It’s only Lucas [Rumball] and I left from that World Cup. Even this trip, there was an educating opportunity, right, to explain to some of those young boys who weren’t a part of it, what the team at that time did and the impact that it made,” he said.

“Every time we’ve come back, we’ve been received so well. Not just by the Kamaishi area but of all of Japan. We get notes from people in Tokyo, from people in Niigata, understanding the impact that that had across the country and that’s been really well received.

“Kamaishi will usually send a representative down to welcome the team and give us some sort of flag or a gift that we hang in our team room and it’s quite personal. It’s just been built over the years and the support we see even in the stands – we’re playing against Japan but there’s people who bring little Canadian flags.

“That one day or moment has lasted seven-plus years now so hopefully that’ll be a connection that we can continue to foster for years to come.”

There are many videos and photos online of the Canadian players selflessly doing whatever they could to help out others in their time of need. The Guardian have shared a video of Canadians like former Northland and Otago lock Josh Larsen doing their part.

Larsen revealed the team leaders made a WhatsApp group, with about 15 players spending the afternoon – that was originally scheduled to be the day of the match –  helping move furniture and clear homes impacted by the storms.

“We’re just trying to do our very small part to try and help them in any way we can,” Canada’s Peter Nelson said, as reported by The Guardian.

“Such a friendly nation and it’s only right that we give back as much as we can, even though it seems like a very small part.”

Canada have been back in Japan over the last couple of weeks, as they prepare to take part in the Asahi Super Rugby Pacific Nations Cup 2026. The Canadians take on defending champions Fiji in the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon in Osaka.

Those two teams will meet again in just over a year, having been drawn in the same pool for Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia. It’ll be the first time since that defeat to the Springboks that Canada play at the men’s tournament, after missing out on qualification for 2023.

“We licked our wounds and used that as extra motivation,” LeSage told this publication this week, with Canada punching their ticket back to the showpiece event during the 2025 PNC. Canada also faced Spain during the all-new World Rugby Nations Cup in July, who they will also meet in pool play.

“Getting a bit of familiarity with those teams and the style of play,” LeSage explained.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for some of our younger players to get meaningful Test minutes at that top level against a style that’s really hard to emulate. Some of my toughest Test matches that I’ve played are against Fiji, just because of how direct and confrontational and physical they are.

“It’s one thing when you’re playing the All Blacks or even Japan who are trying to go around you, but when you’re playing a team that’s trying to go through you, you just have to experience that and feel it for yourself.

“I think this will be an awesome opportunity to test ourselves in a new way that we’re trying to play… whatever team that throw at us in 12 months from now might be different players but likely a similar style and probably a similar feeling.”