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Jamie Cudmore sacked by Canada after posting 'unacceptable' tweets

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Sportsfile/Corbis/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Jamie Cudmore has been sacked by Rugby Canada following a series of since-deleted tweets critical of the Canadian women’s sevens team who were competing at the Olympics in Tokyo where they missed out on reaching the quarter-finals. 

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Sevens veteran Charity Williams shared a screengrab of several tweets from the account of Cudmore, the 42-year-old men’s and academy development coach who was a veteran of 43 Test caps before he finished up in November 2016. He had been prominent in the media in recent years with his stories regarding concussion.

Williams referred to a formal complaint filed by 37 current and former team members in January under Rugby Canada’s bullying and harassment policy. An independent review in April led to head coach John Tait stepping down, insisting he had done nothing wrong.

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Matt Dawson looks back in the 1997 Test series-winning Lions tour

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Matt Dawson looks back in the 1997 Test series-winning Lions tour

However, the investigation resulted in Rugby Canada updating their harassment and bullying policy and they have now acted following Cudmore’s social media postings. One of the since-deleted tweets from his account read: “Karma is a bitch! #Survivorsmyass.”

A Rugby Canada statement read: “Rugby Canada has relieved Jamie Cudmore of his coaching duties with the Canadian rugby development academy and men’s rugby team effective immediately. This decision comes as a result of a review of recent social media postings which were unacceptable and in breach of organisation policy.

https://twitter.com/JNCudmore/status/1421130093255041029

“Rugby Canada’s organisational values remain paramount to the work we do. As previously announced, Rugby Canada remains committed to a detailed, independent review of all performance rugby programs starting next month with a goal of positioning teams for success in supportive, inclusive environments.”

Rugby Canada CEO Allen Vansen added: “We are taking this matter very seriously and concluded that immediate action must be taken.” Rugby Canada board chair Sally Dennis said: “Rugby Canada’s core values, including integrity and respect, must be exemplified in all our rugby programmes and we are determined to promote a healthy, inclusive culture now and in future.”

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In calling out Cudmore’s critical posts on social media, Williams had written: “I have to sit here, once again, and share what we have been going through as a team, the consistent hatred we have received from people in our own organisation. I’m only sharing because this is what we have been dealing with for months.

“From private texts to public stalking online and in person. The bullying and harassment that we have received for coming forward is outrageous and scary at times. This is the reason we called for an internal investigation because we haven’t been safe.”

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Nickers 1 hour ago
The changes Scott Robertson must make to address All Blacks’ bench woes

Hopefully Robertson and co aren't applying this type of thinking to their selections, although some of their moves this year have suggested that might be the case.


The first half of Foster's tenure, when he was surrounded by coaches who were not up to the task, was disastrous due to this type of reactionary chopping and changing. No clear plan of the direction of travel or what needs to be built to get there. Just constant tinkering. A player gets dropped one week, on the bench the next, back to starting the next, dropped for the next week again. Add in injuries and other variations of this selection pattern, combined with vastly different game plans from one week to the next and it's no wonder the team isn't clicking on attack and are making incredibly basic errors on both sides of the ball.


When Schmidt and Ryan got involved selections became far more consistent and the game plan far simpler and the dividends were instant, and they accepted bad performances as part of building towards the world cup. They were able to distinguish between bad plans and bad execution and by the time the finals rolled around they were playing their best rugby as a team.


Chopping and changing the team each week sends the signal that you don't really know what you are doing or why, and you are just reacting to what happened last week, selecting a team to replay the previous game rather than preparing for the next one and building for the future.

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