Toronto to benefit from NZ influence

Mixing the growth of rugby with social benefits has already been a success story in Toronto, Canada.

Now Toronto Inner-city Rugby Foundation (TIRF) executive director Ige Egal is hoping to use his trip to New Zealand to find even more ways to advance their programme.

Egal, along with colleague Paul Myers, is in the country to speak at the World in Union conference at Massey University in Palmerston North.

While they are in the country, the duo will speak to a number of different sporting organisations and clubs to see what they can do to further their cause.

‘‘It is great to be in the spiritual home of rugby,’’ Egal said. ‘‘With the All Blacks being one of the most winningest teams in history, we wanted to find out what makes the All Blacks so successful, but also how the game is developed at the grassroots level all the way to the high performance level.

‘‘We wanted to know what we can learn from New Zealand that we can apply to Toronto or even Canada. So looking at the sports management side, the culture around sport in New Zealand and how people value sport in general.’’

TIRF was set up in 2011, but Egal said it was not just about rugby.

‘‘We are using rugby as an engagement mechanism,’’ he said. ‘‘The goal is to grow the game, but secondly and more importantly is to give access to kids who might not have access to play the game. Once they are playing the game we provide opportunities including scholarships, employment and leadership development.’’

While rugby is not a major sport in Canada - football leads the way in participation, while ice hockey is top in engagement - Egal said the values involved in the sport makes it perfect for development programmes.

‘‘It is easier to start to put together a curriculum about leadership development, about character development and about hard work and perseverance than it is with other sports,’’ he said.

Through scholarships, trips and organising competitions, the programme has already seen a major surge in numbers.

Since 2014, they have double their participation in rugby.

"We wanted to find out... how the game is developed at the grassroots level." Ige Egal

They also launched the first local league within the city of Toronto. Egal said it was important to make sure rugby was available within the city limits.

‘‘It is quite expensive to play sport in general in Canada and rugby was not immune to that,’’ he said. ‘‘Rugby is still a very young sport in Canada. You have to be invited in or seek it out as opposed to walk down the street to play.

‘‘We wanted it to be anchored in the city. We wanted kids to be able to take a bus, cycle or even walk to play as opposed to driving an hour outside of the city to play.’’

Adding to rugby’s issues in Toronto, many clubs were solely focused on their senior team rather than getting kids involved.

So the TIRF went to the clubs to try and find a way to get some of their younger members involved.

‘‘We brought everyone together and said ‘These students who are in our programme weren’t going to play anyway so don’t look at them as lost revenue. We know there are challenges in field space, we know there are challenges in building partnerships with school boards, we know there are challenges with procuring equipment and jerseys. So we look after those costs as long as our students at their clubs have the same access’.’’

Egal said sevens’ inclusion in the Olympics had further fuelled the growth of rugby in Canada.

Now he is hoping the lessons from his trip to New Zealand will contribute as well.