How Canada’s Mason Flesch found rugby again after quitting as a teenager

TOKYO: Mason Flesch has become a backrow enforcer for Canada over 25 Tests, lining up as the fourth-most experienced starter in the side to face Fiji last weekend. But there was a time when Flesch didn’t play rugby at all, before finding it again as a teenager.

Flesch scored two tries against the Flying Fijians, who are the reigning Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup champions. The flanker led the way as Canada fought their way back more than once, producing a performance full of positives, despite falling to a 45-29 defeat.

But the journey to Osaka’s Hanazono Rugby Stadium was fairly unique for Flesch, who initially began playing the sport at about 14. “The sport’s kind of weird at first but I’ll give it a crack,” the loose forward told RugbyPass, reflecting on his introduction to the 15-player game.

Flesch’s stepdad spent time in Australia and was the one who introduced the future Canadian international to the sport. But as a teenager, Flesch “was a bit of a late bloomer physically” and decided to quit rugby at about 16 or 17 years of age.

Wrestling became the go-to sporting endeavour over the next two and a half years for Flesch, who still threw a rugby ball around with his brothers from time to time. Flesch ended up returning to rugby two and a half years later, with his stepdad playing a key role in that.

At 19, Flesch tried out for the provincial team, which is what his stepdad had encouraged him to do. The future Canada loose forward made that team, and then out of the blue, got a phone call from the Under-20s coach.

“I dropped out of college and said, let’s go for it then,” Flesch said. But the decision to not only leave university but also move from Ontario to Victoria didn’t seem like a risk, instead embracing the new opportunity to live in a different place.

An opportunity with the Under-20s program led to a stint with the Pacific Pride Academy, professional deals in Major League Rugby with the Toronto Arrows and Chicago Hounds, and a successful career with the national team to date.

“Once I got into the environment, I just took to it like fish in water,” Flesch said about the opportunity with the Arrows, which came about after Siaki Vikilani suffered an MCL injury.

“Those first three years in Toronto were tough… when Toronto folded and I had to move to Chicago, to a new team, a new environment, guys I’d never seen before, guys I’d never played with before and having to make it personal and really prove that I want this jersey and that I’m gonna make this jersey mine, I think that was probably the best thing for me.

“My last three years in Chicago have been the best rugby I’ve been playing.

“You have to have that ruthless mentality of sure, you’re going into this team, you’re going to be mates with everyone but I’m the new guy and I have to take someone’s job in reality. There’s someone who the year before was wearing that six jersey, but I’m going into this team to take it and make it mine.”

Flesch is coming off a dream-like season with the Hounds, who became the first MLR side ever to go through an entire campaign undefeated. Chicago beat California Legion 35-17 in the championship game, with the backrower among the try-scorers.

Nine Chicago players were named in the initial USA Eagles squad for the Pacific Nations Cup, including Nathan Den Hoedt and Ruben De Haas, Chris Hilsenbeck and Tavite Lopeti, who started their last Test.

Canada beat the USA Eagles 13 months ago, and the two sides are now just a matter of days away from renewing their rivalry in a matter of days. They will meet in the Pacific Nations Cup third-place playoff in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon.

“Even though we didn’t get the win, I was saying after that game, we can be really, really proud of that game. We played 80 minutes; we did some really, really good offensive stuff; our defence was good at times.

“To push Fiji the way we did is big for us. They are Fiji after all. They can pull a rabbit out of a hat at any moment it seems like. They just make things stick and we were able to shut them down for a good portion of that game.

“Obviously we have work-ons, like after every game you want to work on stuff but I don’t think we should be too hard on ourselves. I think we did really well.”