Canada men’s rugby coach Stephen Meehan signs extension with both challenge and opportunity in mind

Stephen Meehan harbours no illusions about the challenges of leading a Canadian national team.

He’s also ready to face them head on.

The Australian, who has coached Canada’s men’s rugby team since last year, signed an extension that carries him through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Rugby Canada announced Thursday.

“I think that, without those sorts of [challenges], life gets a little bit boring,” Meehan said. “But obviously, very pleased to arrive, qualify for the World Cup, and now setting our sights a little bit further down the road.”

After Canada missed the men’s rugby World Cup for the first time in over two decades in 2023, Meehan helped the squad qualify for next summer’s tournament in Australia, cementing his spot as leader of the program.

The 60-year-old joined Rugby Canada after 17 years of global experience including in England and France.

“When the opportunity was presented, it meant that firstly I had the opportunity to go through with this team to the World Cup, so that was very important,” Meehan said. “We qualified almost as early as we possibly could last year. But then off the back of that, I was still looking at ways of, OK, how do we find it? How do we make sure that we've got the talent that we're going to provide opportunities for players to make sure that they have the opportunity of putting their best foot forward?”

Gathering talent all at once is one of those challenges Meehan will face over the next three summers, beginning with a trio of games in Edmonton next month for the Rugby Nations Cup.

Meehan counted players on his national team who play professionally in Canada, Uruguay, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, Ireland, Wales, England and France.

Not to mention that not every player,