Canada rugby coach Kingsley Jones renews acquaintances with Russia this weekend

Coach Kingsley Jones will see familiar faces everywhere he looks Saturday when his Canadian side takes on Russia at Ottawa’s Twin Elm Rugby Park.

Russian forwards coach Alexander Voytov was Jones’s captain when he coached Russia. Jones brought backs coach Josh Taumalolo, a former Tongan international, to Russia. The Russian performance coach played lock under Jones. And the Bears have the same team manager, who worked closely with Jones.

Jones joined the Russian team as a consultant prior to the 2011 Rugby World Cup before being elevated to national teams director and taking over the national squad. He resigned in 2014 for family reasons.

“Going to a World Cup, you can’t buy that,” he said. “To take a team to a World Cup was a tremendous time.” 

The Russians dropped all four games at the 2011 World Cup but came close in a 13-6 loss to the U.S. — Jones recalls his team made 220 tackles in the rain — and managed a total of 61 points against Australia, Ireland and Italy. They are headed back to rugby’s showcase, qualifying for the 2019 tournament in Japan after Spain, Belgium and Romania were sanctioned for fielding ineligible players.

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Canada has one more crack at joining them, via a last-chance repechage tournament in November.

Both Canada and Russia are coming off disappointing performances.

The 21st-ranked Canadian men were battered 48-10 last week in Edmonton by No. 6 Scotland, which brought a young but very capable touring side to North America. No. 19 Russia was hammered 62-13 by the 15th-ranked U.S. Eagles in Denver.

Jones expects a better performance from the visitors on Saturday.

World Rugby says a win would move Canada back into the top 20. A loss and Canada drops below Hong Kong into 22nd place.

Jones came to Russia at the behest of Howard Thomas, an Englishman who was an executive with Russia Rugby.

The Welsh native combined his coaching responsibilities in Russia, a part-time role that took 24 weeks a year, with first a consulting position with London Welsh and than as assistant coach of the Newport Gwent Dragons (now known simply as the Dragons) in Wales.

While he has good memories of his time with Russia, being away from his young family was difficult.

“I commuted, if you like,” he said, noting it’s a four-hour flight from London to Moscow. “But it was still long periods away from them.”

In Russia, he divided his team between Sochi, Moscow and other cities, wherever the national team was training or playing.

Jones had an interpreter to start with but eventually dispensed with him, realizing that speaking rugby was a language in itself. He started learning Russian and began using players like Voytov, Yuri Kushnarev and Vasily Artemyev, who speak English, to help get his message across.

“They really led the team,” he said. “That’s my style really. It’s the same here, I go though leaders and it worked really well. And through that those guys, well they were empowered.”

Jones’ last game in charge was a 31-20 win over Germany in a repechage playoff in May 2014. Russia went on to the repechage final, just missing out on World Cup qualification in a 57-49 aggregate loss to Uruguay later that year.

Russia hoped he would stay on but the Dragons wanted him as head coach.

In the leadup to Saturday’s game, Jones has watched his words carefully.

“It’s difficult because when you’re coaching you don’t want to make it about yourself,” he said. “That’s the first thing you never do.”

“I know them very very well … I hope they go well, I really do,” he added. “But I obviously hope they don’t go that well this weekend.”

Jones sees both countries facing similar rugby challenges, specifically in that top athletes are drawn to competing sports.

“They losing a lot of big, strong, potential front-five (forwards) through wrestling,” he said of Russia.

Canada is 4-0-0 all-time against Russia, winning 46-12 most recently in Calgary in 2016.

The Canadians wrap up their June international series against the U.S. on June 23 in Halifax.

Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press