Ottawa trials

[Tommygilf]

I assume there's a tweet in English too but basically its saying Ottawa will be hosting trials in Autumn exclusively for Canadians to try out. Good news!

[Damien]

Good to see.

[Tommygilf]

En Anglais 

[DavidM]

Good luck to them hope they pick up a few gems and plenty there get hooked on the greatest game . More home grown influence on any side the better , and the better the goodwill and roots in the area 

[Big Picture]

20 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I assume there's a tweet in English too but basically its saying Ottawa will be hosting trials in Autumn exclusively for Canadians to try out. Good news!

Complete with the anglicisme Rugby League.  Do they have a clue?

[Tommygilf]

3 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

Complete with the anglicisme Rugby League.  Do they have a clue?

Tbf Jeu à Treize is a hangover from a time when the game in France wasn't allowed to be called Rugby League (which is was prior or at least Rugby à Treize). Its important to French RL for their history, but not in the wider francophone world imo - we should be as consistent as possible. 

[Big Picture]

Just now, Tommygilf said:

Tbf Jeu à Treize is a hangover from a time when the game in France wasn't allowed to be called Rugby League (which is was prior or at least Rugby à Treize). Its important to French RL for their history, but not in the wider francophone world imo - we should be as consistent as possible. 

There's a good reason why stop signs in the parts of Canada where French is spoken widely use ARRÊT instead/in addition to STOP.  When appealing to francophones anglicismes should be avoided and I would have expected a latino like Eric Pérez to know that.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

De la Rugby League, really? 

[Tommygilf]

23 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

There's a good reason why stop signs in the parts of Canada where French is spoken widely use ARRÊT instead/in addition to STOP.  When appealing to francophones anglicismes should be avoided and I would have expected a latino like Eric Pérez to know that.

I really don't know what you want them to call the sport named after a small town with a private school in the middle of England if not its name?

[Big Picture]

4 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I really don't know what you want them to call the sport named after a small town with a private school in the middle of England if not its name?

In French Rugby à Treize of course because that is its name in French.

[Tommygilf]

3 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

In French Rugby à Treize of course because that is its name in French.

Whatever you say

[Man of Kent]

Well this thread quickly descended into petty pointlessness!

Didn’t Toronto do this or is this a different approach?

[wiganermike]

4 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Well this thread quickly descended into petty pointlessness!

Didn’t Toronto do this or is this a different approach?

Toronto did hold trials prior to their entry into League 1, I think that's where they got Quinn Ngawati from. Eric Perez left at the end of their first season and it doesn't seem to have been repeated. TWP were going all out for SL and trial players from Canada didn't really fit with  their approach.

Eric Perez says that differences in approach was part of the reason he left TWP and that Ottawa are going for more of a Canada based squad approach with more focus on developing community links and players. Time will tell whether attempts to find and develop Canadian players do continue with Ottawa rather than falling away as they have with Toronto. Hopefully they will and will provide a foundation for Ottawa and the sport to build on.

[Man of Kent]

1 minute ago, wiganermike said:

Time will tell whether attempts to find and develop Canadian players do continue with Ottawa rather than falling away as they have with Toronto. Hopefully they will and will provide a foundation for Ottawa and the sport to build on.

Indeed.

I searched it up (as my daughter would say) and it transpires in those far-off days when Toronto seemed fresh, exciting and The Future of Rugby League - not the poorly-managed spivvy bulls**t merchants they have since proven to be - they held numerous trials in multiple cities.

Would trials in Ottawa be any more fruitful (genuine question)?

[Just Browny]

3 hours ago, Big Picture said:

There's a good reason why stop signs in the parts of Canada where French is spoken widely use ARRÊT instead/in addition to STOP.  When appealing to francophones anglicismes should be avoided and I would have expected a latino like Eric Pérez to know that.

Got your eye on that big picture again then.

[Big Picture]

1 minute ago, Just Browny said:

Got your eye on that big picture again then.

Absolutely.

[wiganermike]

2 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Indeed.

I searched it up (as my daughter would say) and it transpires in those far-off days when Toronto seemed fresh, exciting and The Future of Rugby League - not the poorly-managed spivvy bulls**t merchants they have since proven to be - they held numerous trials in multiple cities.

Would trials in Ottawa be any more fruitful (genuine question)?

I suppose like trials held anywhere it depends on who turns up to try out. There may be athletes capable of converting to RL and performing well over in Canada. In a country that big you would have to think there would be some. The problem Ottawa face is persuading those lads to turn up for the trial and if they do turn up, being an attractive enough prospect for them to sign up to play.

[tms]

14 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

 

Would trials in Ottawa be any more fruitful (genuine question)?

that depends if the trials are just held in ottawa  rather than toronto holding them miles away   in Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Montreal,  and Vancouver 

[Big Picture]

21 minutes ago, wiganermike said:

I suppose like trials held anywhere it depends on who turns up to try out. There may be athletes capable of converting to RL and performing well over in Canada. In a country that big you would have to think there would be some. The problem Ottawa face is persuading those lads to turn up for the trial and if they do turn up, being an attractive enough prospect for them to sign up to play.

There are such athletes here, a good many Canadian gridiron players also played RU in high school.  The question is whether this will offer them enough money, stature, etc. to interest the better prospects.

[tms]

8 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

There are such athletes here, a good many Canadian gridiron players also played RU in high school.  The question is whether this will offer them enough money, stature, etc. to interest the better prospects.

to get round this  ottawa should stay part time  so players can have other jobs and the ottawa wage would just be a top up

[Big Picture]

2 minutes ago, POR said:

to get round this  ottawa should stay part time  so players can have other jobs and the ottawa wage would just be a top up

That won't work with regular transatlantic travel though.

[wiganermike]

Just now, SL17 said:

Part time players over the pond. Good luck with that.

As Big Picture says it wouldn't work in tandem with regular trans-Atlantic travel. It wouldn't be easy to pop back to do your shift. Even if it were then the cost of going back and forth would use up the extra wage surely.

[Eddie]

3 hours ago, Big Picture said:

In French Rugby à Treize of course because that is its name in French.

No it’s it’s name in France, and not for a good reason either. 

[Tommygilf]

13 minutes ago, Eddie said:

No it’s it’s name in France, and not for a good reason either. 

Thank you. Its a subtle difference

[Oldbear]

You can choose to believe me or not, but as a father with 2 sons who are student athletes in Canadian Universities (and my eldest played in the same representative RU team as Quinn) I can tell you that the raw athletic talent is there. Whether anyone actually comes through to a pro RL career or not will depend on

1. Money, talented athletes are usually good at more than one sport, can they make a living at RL versus another sport

2. Awareness of the opportunity, I can say pretty much no one in BC is aware of their even being a team planned for Ottawa, in fact there’s a good chance most of Canada is blissfully unaware, and to make people aware may cost $, something that Ottawa may not be so willing to spend at the moment, especially as there’s no guarantee they will even take the field next year (we still have an international travel ban and Covid hasn’t gone away). As a result vast swathes of potential athletes are certainly going to be missed.

3. Rugby Canada/MLR. I can’t see Rugby Canada being too keen to see some of their young talent being lured to the Aces, expect retaliation. Also MLR will be a much more attractive proposition, there are teams already playing in NA and according to what my youngest son was told, the money’s not terrible.

4. Coaching. These guys will be raw, VERY raw, and although some will revel in the sport (I keep telling my youngest to try out as he’s naturally way more suited to a RL loose forward than an RU flanker) they will all need top quality coaching from someone willing to invest the time.

For what it’s worth I could easily see shirts numbers 21-25 in a 25 man squad being taken by Canadians in League1, beyond that who knows, but any talk of a predominately Canadian squad is just that.