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Rugby Canada outlines ‘extensive’ process behind Steve Meehan appointment
Rugby Canada has shared with RugbyPass a video that outlines the process that led to Steve Meehan’s appointment as men’s national team head coach.
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Following the departure of Kingsley Jones last month, Meehan was announced as the ideal candidate to lead Canada’s quest for Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 qualification.
According to the video, more than 150 candidates were considered as part of an “extensive” search, with 18 placed on a longlist that was whittled down to a shortlist of five.
Former Bath and Toulon coach Meehan was hired following an interview involving several members of the Rugby Canada board, including Chair Kathleen McGinn, CEO Nathan Bombrys, High Performance Director Stephen Aboud and a World Rugby representative.
The video states the interview panel were in “unanimous agreement” that Meehan was the right person for the job.
“The decision to replace the head coach (Jones) was not a reactive or emotional decision. Rather, it was a result of analysing the relationship between team results, team performances, team selection, team preparation, staff effectiveness, player feedback and team strategies,” the video states.
“A needs analysis of the team’s performances in current context was undertaken to produce a coach profile that would best satisfy the team’s needs. Six categories were examined with priorities for the role identified in each category.”
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The video continues: “The profile identified the need for a strong technical coach rather than a director of coaching co-ordinator. A candidate with credible high performance senior coaching experience and competence in developing team attack.
“The range of coaches considered was extensive, with each coach being examined under coaching profile and desired competencies and characteristics.
“In summary, over 60 teams were considered, including clubs and national teams. Over 150 head coaches and assistant coaches were considered.
“The first identification process identified 18 coaches who were strong considerations. Further filtering based on the status and availability of these coaches resulted in a list of five coaches identified.
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“Each of these five coaches were contacted directly to explore their opinions, perspectives and interests.
“Finally, a prioritised list of coaches was identified from which the best fit candidate (Meehan) underwent an interview with a representation of Rugby Canada Chair and two board members, World Rugby High Performance Director, Rugby Canada’s CEO and High Performance Director.
“Following this meeting, there was a unanimous agreement that this person was an excellent choice to assume the role of Canada’s senior men’s 15s head coach.”
Meehan has been charged with returning Canada to Rugby World Cup after they missed out on qualification for the men’s tournament in 2023 for the first time.
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A couple of things.
I find this quite impossible that Rugby Canada did all this coaching research within 8 days. Kinglsy was fired on the 12th of December and Meehan was hired on the 20th.
Why was World Rugby a part of Rugby Canada's Hiring panel again????? World Rugby were the ones that hired Kingsley Jones ( had an 10 -34-1 record). Did World Rugby mandate that Rugby Canada extend Kingsley Jones contract after we failed to make the world cup????
As for Steve Meehan, It keeps getting posted that he coached Bath. That was 14 years ago and not relevant to the current game!!!!!! Im not expecting anything different.
His resume is decent. Rugby here in Canada has a ton of issues. We are soooooo far behind the other nations qualifying for the world cups. It will take a decade to get back to competitive levels. Another worry is the Women. Our program is already not moving fast enough to keep the women in the top five. I have huge doubts that Canada has the resources and "know-how" to bring the men back to the competitive field and keep the women in the top 5.
Agree, the issues are layered and multi-faceted. While many pundits like to beat up on RC, they seem to forget that the men's game has been declining for many years. Our last reasonable showing at the WC was over a decade ago and any hopes of returning will only occur when they expand the number of teams.
Women's game is a shining light (sevens and 15s), however, with its growth in Top tier nations comes with lots of financial and now fan support (look at PWR in England), the women are following the old pattern that the men did in 90s and 2000s with many of the top players playing out of country. That will not ensure a strong domestic development program.
One area that seems to be ignored is the Grassroots development. Based in British Columbia, our grassroots numbers are only just now recovering from COVID and growth at the base is slow and not helped that many school-based systems are disappearing. A number of BC clubs are supporting growth thru robust youth programs, however, many are stuck in the old days when players came to them without little or no community involvement from the club. We cannot afford that pattern anymore. If clubs do not take on a more active role the development of athletes throughout the pathway programs, we are destined to continue the slide. If a club does not male and female pathways from minis to senior, you have ask WHY NOT? Game will not grow unless they begin that transition. In my club we have male and female pathways from minis to senior along with feeding our local university with players as they graduate - resulting in450-500 registered athletes. If we can do it, why do so many clubs in BC only produce senior teams (many with imports from abroad) with limited youth programs?
Seems simple, build the base and upper levels will be better supported (athletes, resources, funds, opportunities for sponsorship). It just takes focus, effort and prioritization.