For a second successive year, the Canadian national wheelchair rugby team will compete at Rugbymania in Prague, Czech Republic. The tournament, which is celebrating its 20^th anniversary, will be played at the Miroveho hnuti arena from Thursday, November 15^th to Saturday, November 17^th and feature a competitive field of club and national teams.

Rugbymania 2018 will mark Canada’s first competitive matches since competing at the World Championships in August. The tournament will be an opportunity for the team to experiment with new roles and lineups, as well as showcase the hard work they’ve put into training in recent months.

“Rugbymania is going to provide us with an opportunity to measure a few new things and set a starting point on which to improve upon, as we start our preparation towards Lima 2019 and qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics,” said Head Coach Patrick Côté.

TEAM CANADA ROSTER

Canada’s roster for Rugbymania 2018 features a strong mix of Paralympic veterans and rising talents, as the team continues its preparations for the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru.

“Rugbymania is the perfect tournament to start the year, as it will play a key role in the development of our young players.” said Côté, “In Prague, we intend to focus on our defence, our ability to create more turnovers and place a heavier emphasis on the accountability of our athletes.”

The athletes nominated to the Canadian Wheelchair Rugby Team are as follows:

Anthony Létourneau (Boisbriand, QC)
Benjamin Perkins (North Augusta, ON)
Cody Caldwell (Peterborough, ON)
Eric Furtado Rodrigues (Mississauga, ON)
Fabien Lavoie (Quebec City, QC)
Matt Debly (Windsor, ON)
Patrice Dagenais (Embrun, ON)
Patrice Simard (Quebec City, QC)
Trevor Hirschfield (Vancouver, BC)
Yanick Racicot (Montreal, QC)

Individual bios for each athlete can be found HERE.

THE PATH TO RUGBYMANIA SUPREMACY

A highly competitive Group B will see Canada first lock horns with Gigantes, a club team from Brazil, before taking on tournaments hosts the Prague Robots, in a rematch of last year’s bronze-medal game. Canada will then round out the group stage against Sweden’s national team, whom they last played in June, winning 53-45 at the 2018 Canada Cup.

“Our pool is very strong with teams from Brazil, Sweden, and the Czech Republic,” said Côté. “I’m looking forward to the challenge and to seeing who on our team will be able to step up their level of play.”

GROUP A: Flying Wheels Austria (AUT), Blue Link Team (FRA), Red Lions Luxembourg (LUX), Germany (GER)
GROUP B: CANADA (CAD), Prague Robots (CZE), Gigantes (BRA), Sweden (SWE)

The four teams in each group will play each other in a round-robin format, with the winner and runner-up advancing to the semi-finals, which will take place on Saturday, November 17.

MATCH SCHEDULE

RECAPS

Results and short recaps from all of Canada’s Rugbymania 2018 matches will be posted on wheelchairrugby.ca. Be sure to follow @WCRugbyCanada on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, for updates and photos of the team in action at this exciting international competition.

WEBCAST

Only Saturday’s matches will be streamed online. More information to follow.

About Wheelchair Rugby Canada

Wheelchair Rugby Canada is the national governing body for the Canadian Heritage Sport of wheelchair rugby. Wheelchair Rugby Canada strives to be a world-leader in wheelchair rugby, a respected advocate for wheelchair athletes and a visionary organization committed to excellence in programs from recruitment to retirement.

For more information, please contact:

Ben Parker-Jones
Communications and Marketing Coordinator
Wheelchair Rugby Canada
Tel: 613.523.0004
Email: ben@wheelchairrugby.ca