Canada national rugby league team

The Canada national rugby league team represents Canada in international rugby league football tournaments.

This article is about the men's team. For the women's team, see Canada women's national rugby league team.

Canada
Team information
NicknameWolverines
Governing bodyCanada Rugby League
RegionAmericas
Head coachAaron Zimmerle
CaptainSkyler Dumas
Home stadiumLamport Stadium
RLIF ranking21st
Uniforms
First colours
Second colours
Team results
First international
 Canada 23–10 United States 
(1987)
Biggest win
 Canada 52–14 United States 
(2014)
Biggest defeat
England Lions 68–4 Canada 
(2012)

History
Further information: Rugby league in Canada

1987–2000: Origins

Rugby league was first introduced to Canada in the 1900s but was quickly outlawed by Rugby Union officials and thus became Canadian Football. It wasn't until the late 1980s that rugby league was re-introduced to Canada at an amateur level, when a short-lived 4-team domestic competition, known as the Tri-Counties Rugby League, was established. Four teams competed in its first year, three in Canada and one in the U.S., the New York-based Adirondacks club.[1]

The Canadian national team played their first game in 1987 against the USA. They then played sporadically throughout the 1990s and participated in the 1995 and '96 Rugby League World Sevens and Rugby League Emerging Nations World Cup in 2000. Following the 2000 Emerging Nations World Cup, the Canadian Rugby League Federation folded. As a result, the national team was disbanded and the sport remained dormant for 10 years.

2010 onwards: Revival
The briefly used "Mounties" 2010 logo

In 2010, a new governing body, Canada Rugby League, was formed. Their first comeback game was in 2010 in the War at the Shore tournament, where they played New England Immortals, a New England representative team, and the New York Knights AMNRL club team, losing both games.[2] The team's international comeback was later in the year in September in the inaugural Colonial Cup.[3] Later that year they competed in the Rugby League Atlantic Cup in Jacksonville, Florida.

Canada's first win since they were reformed came the following year in 2011 against Jamaica. They collected their second win in September, against the USA in the second game of the Colonial Cup. However, due to an earlier loss to the USA and the resulting aggregate scores, Canada was unable to win the Cup. Canada's international season finished up with a defeat against South Africa, in a warm up game before their 2013 World Cup qualifiers campaign.

In 2014, Stuart Donlan was appointed as head coach.[4] Donlan's first game was the 2014 Colonial Cup's only fixture. He coached Canada to a famous victory which made them the Colonial Cup champions for the very first time.[5] Aaron Zimmerle, the head coach of the Tweed Heads Seagulls, took over the main coaching role in 2015 in their 2017 World Cup qualifying campaign.[6]

After failing to qualify for the 2017 World Cup, the Canada Rugby League Board appointed Benjamin Fleming as coach on a three-year deal. Canada Rugby League Association Vice President David Graham said "the board's decision to appoint Fleming as Head Coach was based on the hard work and passion he has shown since returning to the association last year."

Current squad

1. Andrew Giguere

2. Ethan Langs

3. Michael Mastroianni

4. Emil Borggren

5. Tony Felix

6. Matt Calvert

7. Brad Austin

8. Charles Curran

9. James Robertson

10. Dean Parker

11. Skyler Dumas

12. Dominic Witschi

13. Antoine Blanc

14. Kyle Koivisto

15. Eric Moyer

17. James Gwatkin

18. Tyler Doran

19. Mike Gallagher

21. Travis Depasquale

22. Jordon Henry

Competitive Record
See also: Canada national rugby league team results

Results overview
Against First Played Played Won Lost Drawn % Won last Played
 Chile20181100100%2018
 England Lionhearts201230300%2016
 Fiji200610100%2006
 France10100%
 Italy10100%
 Jamaica2010953160%2018
 Japan211050%
 Lebanon20121100100%2012
 South Africa201110100%2011
 United States198727720023%2017
 Wales10100%
 Royal Air Force201220200%2014
Total491534131%

The following tournaments is a list of notable international competitions that Canada has been competing in since their existence in 1987.

World Cup
World Cup Record
Year Round Position Pld Win Draw Loss
1954 Did not enter
1957
1960
1968
1970
1972
1975
1977
1985–88
1989–92
1995
2000 Did not qualify
2008
2013
2017
2021
2025 Qualified

Colonial Cup
Colonial Cup record
Year Round Position GP W L D
2010Second place2/21010
2011Second place2/22110
2012Second place2/22020
2013Second place2/24130
2014Champions1/21100
2015Champions1/23210
Total2 Titles6/613580

Caribbean Carnival Cup
  • The Caribbean Carnival Cup is annual series that has been played between Canada and Jamaica since 2011.
Caribbean Cup record
Year Round Position GP W L D
2011Champions1/21100
2012Champions1/21100
2013Champions1/21100
2014Champions1/21100
Total4 Titles4/44400

Atlantic Cup
Atlantic Cup record
Year Round Position GP W L D
2009Not Invited
2010Second place2/32110
Total0 Titles1/22110

Rankings
Official Men's Rankings as of November 2019
RankChange*TeamPts%
1 2 New Zealand
2 1 Australia
3 1 England
4  Tonga
5  Fiji
6 4 Papua New Guinea
7  Samoa
8 2 France
9 1 Scotland
10 1 Lebanon
11 5 Greece
12  Ireland
13 1 Italy
14 3 Wales
15 4 Serbia
16 1 Malta
17 1 Norway
18 3 United States
19 4 Poland
20 7 Jamaica
21 1 Hungary
22 3 Czech Republic
23 5 Cook Islands
24 7 Turkey
25 1 Netherlands
26 4 Spain
27 6 Canada
28  Nigeria
29 2 Solomon Islands
30 10 Sweden
31 4 Germany
32 1 Chile
33  Ghana
34 16 Morocco
35 3 Vanuatu
36  South Africa
37 8 Russia
38  Cameroon
39 2 Ukraine
40 1 Colombia
41 4 Brazil
42  Belgium
43 4 Denmark
44 4 Bulgaria
45 4 Latvia
*Change from July 2019
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See also

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 January 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Lester, Jamie (5 April 2010). "Canadian team to play in AMNRL 'War at the Shore'". rleague.com. Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
  3. O'Neill, Matthew (16 August 2010). "Canada to host USA in inaugural Colonial Cup". rleague.com. Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
  4. "Stuart Donlan named head coach of Canada Wolverines". Archived from the original on 24 May 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  5. http://www.rugbyleagueplanet.com/rugby-league-nations/91-rugby-league-test-match-or-international-game/1853-canada-52-smack-usa-14-in-rugby-league-international
  6. "Canada announces Aaron Zimmerle as head coach for Qualifiers". CRL. 11 September 2015. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
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