Rugby Canada’s newest high performance director drawing rave reviews | CBC Sports

Stephen Aboud arrives as Rugby Canada’s new high performance director with a glowing endorsement, albeit from his wife.

“He makes others look good,” says Olive.

Aboud also gets rave reviews from outside his immediate family.

“We took our time to try to get the right person,” said Rugby Canada CEO Nathan Bombrys. “I’m feeling really good about Steve and what he’s about. And what his values are as a man and his philosophies in rugby. I think he’s going to really really help us improve and help us get better every day.”

“He’s fantastic at what he does,” added Canada men’s 15s coach Kingsley Jones. “He’s a great signing by Rugby Canada. A great addition.”

Aboud has the resume to back that up.

The Irish native most recently spent six years with the Italy Rugby Federation, serving as head of technical direction for the development of players and coaches. Before that he spent 26 years with the Irish Rugby Football Union in a variety of roles.

Ireland’s men are ranked No. 1 in the world while Italy is No. 13. Canada is ranked 23rd.

‘Like the Vatican’

Aboud officially took up his new role in Langford, B.C., this month. But he started getting the lay of the land weeks before that, making connections — and listening. He said he didn’t want his arrival to be like “a blind date.”

“Every organization is like the Vatican. It looks different from the outside,” said Aboud.

He is joining an organization that is undergoing change under Bombrys, whose appointment as CEO was announced in April 2022.

An independent review last year into Rugby Canada’s high-performance programs painted a damning picture of a dysfunctional organization at odds with its athletes, staff and supporters.

Aboud went over the report multiple times before taking the job, acknowledging the comments contained within are “serious.” But he is looking forward not back.

Aboud had success in Italy implementing a revamped talent pathway.

“They already knew what they wanted,” he said. “They just needed someone who could facilitate that with their staff on a technical level. It was their idea and I just happened to fit the suit.”

WATCH | Canada men’s 7s team beats Kenya to avoid relegation:

HSBC Men’s World Rugby Sevens Series London: Canada vs. Kenya

Watch the Canadian men face Kenya in the play-off final at the HSBC Men’s World Rugby Sevens Series in London, England.

Different than Italy

Aboud was open to the Italian challenge because he felt he needed a new challenge with the Irish union was moving in the right direction.

The Italian plan began to pay dividends with young talent making its way to the senior side, which is led by former Canada coach Kieran Crowley. Italy famously upset Wales 22-21 in March 2022 in Cardiff to end a 36-match, seven-year losing streak in Six Nations play, and edged Australia 28-27 later that year in Florence for its first-ever win over the Wallabies.

Asked if he will bring the Italian model to Canada, Aboud’s answer was emphatic.

“I have no intention of reproducing anything I’ve done because the context is different,” he said.

He calls them control, contact and quality.

“We need to have control, to influence a direction,” he added. “Because without control of an element of the direction, then you’re just going to go all over the compass.

“The second thing is we need to increase contact with the people who are going to be developed to do the work and who are going to play and train and coach. If we don’t have contact, then the learning is going to be reduced.”

The Italian pathway has changed since Aboud’s departure, with the Italy Rugby Federation under new management with a different vision.

Rugby Canada has itself started a new path, with more movement between the sevens and 15s game.

“More opportunities for players to get better,” said Bombrys.

Big matches upcoming

The Canadian women’s 15s team, ranked fourth in the world, has a pair of high-profile test matches next month in Ottawa, against No. 2 New Zealand and No. 5 Australia in the Pacific Four series. The men’s 15s team, which failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup, is awaiting word from World Rugby on its upcoming matches, likely in August.

Both men’s and women’s sevens squads will be looking to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Rugby Americas North Sevens in August in Langford. The sevens men survived a recent relegation battle to retain their status as a core team next season on the World Rugby Sevens Series.

Aboud wasn’t looking for a full-time job after his time in Italy. Instead he was working as a consultant on projects that interested him and whose timing suited him.

He told his wife his next full-time project had to be “the right challenge but with the right people.”

“I’m convinced it’s the right people [at Rugby Canada], without a doubt. Otherwise I wouldn’t touch it,” he said. “Because what we do it just too difficult and you’re never around to celebrate it, when it really comes through. That’s just what we sign up [for].”

Aboud played rugby at Blackrock College in Dublin and got involved with the Irish Rugby Football Union while studying to be teacher. He went on to teach mathematics and physical education and coach rugby at Belvedere College in Dublin.

Eventually the IRFU offered him a position as a development officer, prompting him to take a leave from teaching.

“My mother thought I was crazy, leaving a pensionable teaching job to work in a sport that wasn’t even professional,” Aboud recalled. “I never looked back from then.”