Canada

Team information
Nickname	Wolverines
Governing body	Canada Rugby League
Region	Americas
Head coach	Aaron Zimmerle
Captain	Skyler Dumas
Home stadium	Lamport Stadium
IRL ranking	46th
Uniforms
First colours Second colours
Team results
First international
Canada 23–10 United States  (1987)
Biggest win
Canada 52–14 United States  (Toronto, Ontario; 9 August 2014)
Biggest defeat
England 68–4 Canada  (Toronto, Ontario; 6 October 2012)

The Canada national rugby league team (French: équipe du Canada de rugby à XIII) represents Canada in international rugby league football tournaments.

History

1987–2000: Origins

Rugby league was first introduced to Canada in the 1900s but was quickly outlawed by Rugby Union officials and thus became Canadian Football. It was not until the late 1980s that rugby league was re-introduced to Canada at an amateur level, when a short-lived 4-team domestic competition, known as the Tri-Counties Rugby League, was established. Four teams competed in its first year, three in Canada and one in the U.S., the New York–based Adirondacks club.^[1]

The Canadian national team played their first game in 1987 against the USA. They then played sporadically throughout the 1990s and participated in the 1995 and '96 Rugby League World Sevens and Rugby League Emerging Nations World Cup in 2000. Following the 2000 Emerging Nations World Cup, the Canadian Rugby League Federation folded. As a result, the national team was disbanded and the sport remained dormant for 10 years.

2010 onwards: Revival

In 2010, a new governing body, Canada Rugby League, was formed. Their first comeback game was in 2010 in the War at the Shore tournament, where they played New England Immortals, a New England representative team, and the New York Knights AMNRL club team, losing both games.^[2] The team's international comeback was later in the year in September in the inaugural Colonial Cup.^[3] Later that year they competed in the Rugby League Atlantic Cup in Jacksonville, Florida.

Canada's first win since they were reformed came the following year in 2011 against Jamaica. They collected their second win in September, against the US in the second game of the Colonial Cup. However, due to an earlier loss to the US and the resulting aggregate scores, Canada was unable to win the Cup. Canada's international season finished up with a defeat against South Africa, in a warm up game before their 2013 World Cup qualifiers campaign.

In 2014, Stuart Donlan was appointed as head coach.^[4] Donlan's first game was the 2014 Colonial Cup's only fixture. He coached Canada to a famous victory which made them the Colonial Cup champions for the very first time.^[5] Aaron Zimmerle, the head coach of the Tweed Heads Seagulls, took over the main coaching role in 2015 in their 2017 World Cup qualifying campaign.^[6]

After failing to qualify for the 2017 World Cup, the Canada Rugby League Board appointed Benjamin Fleming as coach on a three-year deal. Canada Rugby League Association Vice President David Graham said "the board's decision to appoint Fleming as Head Coach was based on the hard work and passion he has shown since returning to the association last year."

Current squad

1. Andrew Giguere

2. Ethan Langs

3. Michael Mastroianni

4. Emil Borggren

5. Tony Felix

6. Ash Calvert

7. Ryley Jacks

8. Charles Curran

9. Rhys Jacks

10. Dean Parker

11. Skyler Dumas

12. Dominic Witschi

13. Antoine Blanc

14. Kyle Koivisto

15. Eric Moyer

17. James Gwatkin

18. Tyler Doran

19. Mike Gallagher

21. Travis Depasquale

22. Jordon Henry

Competitive Record

International results

Below is the head-to-head record of the Canadian national XIII side up to date as of 25 April 2021.^[7][8]

Against	First Played	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	% Won	last Played	For	Against	Diff
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2019	1	1	0	0	100%	2018	78	2	+76
Chile	2018	1	1	0	0	100%	2018	62	12	+50
England Lionhearts	2012	2	0	2	0	0%	2014	16	102	–86
Fiji	2016	1	0	1	0	0%	2016	12	26	–14
France	1995	1	0	1	0	0%	1995	32	72	–40
Italy	2000	1	0	1	0	0%	2000	6	66	–60
Jamaica	2010	9	5	3	1	55.56%	2018	210	174	+36
Japan	1999	2	1	1	0	50%	2000	28	26	+2
Lebanon	2012	1	1	0	0	100%	2012	36	18	+18
Serbia	2019	1	0	1	0	0%	2019	8	36	–28
South Africa	2011	1	0	1	0	0%	2011	22	36	–14
United States	1993	24	5	19	0	20.83%	2017	402	756	–354
Total	1993	45	14	30	1	31.11%	2019	834	1324	–490

The following tournaments is a list of notable international competitions that Canada has been competing in since their existence in 1987.

World Cup

World Cup Record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	Win	Draw	Loss
1954	did not enter
1957
1960
1968
1970
1972
1975
1977
1985–88
1989–92
1995
2000	did not qualify
2008
2013
2017
2021
2025	TBD

Colonial Cup

Colonial Cup record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	D
2010	Second place	2/2	1	0	1	0
2011	Second place	2/2	2	1	1	0
2012	Second place	2/2	2	0	2	0
2013	Second place	2/2	4	1	3	0
2014	Champions	1/2	1	1	0	0
2015	Champions	1/2	3	2	1	0
Total	2 Titles	6/6	13	5	8	0

Caribbean Carnival Cup

• The Caribbean Carnival Cup is annual series that has been played between Canada and Jamaica since 2011.

Caribbean Cup record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	D
2011	Champions	1/2	1	1	0	0
2012	Champions	1/2	1	1	0	0
2013	Champions	1/2	1	1	0	0
2014	Champions	1/2	1	1	0	0
Total	4 Titles	4/4	4	4	0	0

Atlantic Cup

Atlantic Cup record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	L	D
2009	Not Invited
2010	Second place	2/3	2	1	1	0
Total	0 Titles	1/2	2	1	1	0

Rankings

IRL Men's World Rankings v t e
Official rankings as of 21 December 2023
Rank	Change	Team	Pts %
1		Australia	100.00
2		New Zealand	91.00
3	1	England	74.00
4	1	Samoa	70.00
5		Tonga	54.00
6		Papua New Guinea	50.00
7		Fiji	49.00
8	1	France	24.00
9	1	Lebanon	24.00
10	3	Cook Islands	22.00
11	1	Serbia	19.00
12	6	Netherlands	17.00
13	1	Italy	15.00
14	5	Malta	15.00
15	1	Greece	14.00
16	4	Ireland	14.00
17	6	Wales	13.00
18	3	Jamaica	10.00
19	2	Scotland	9.00
20	8	Ukraine	7.00
21	6	Czech Republic	7.00
22	1	Germany	6.00
23	10	Philippines	6.00
24	5	Poland	6.00
25	1	South Africa	5.00
26	4	Chile	5.00
27	4	Kenya	0.00
28	6	Norway	4.00
29	6	Nigeria	4.00
30	6	Ghana	4.00
31	6	Brazil	4.00
32	12	Turkey	3.00
33	4	United States	3.00
34	1	Bulgaria	3.00
35	5	Cameroon	2.00
36	2	Montenegro	2.00
37	5	Spain	2.00
38	6	Japan	1.00
39		Albania	1.00
40	4	Colombia	1.00
41	6	El Salvador	1.00
42		North Macedonia	1.00
43	1	Morocco	1.00
44	3	Sweden	0.00
45		Bosnia and Herzegovina	0.00
46	3	Canada	0.00
47		Niue	0.00
48	9	Solomon Islands	0.00
49	1	Belgium	0.00
50	10	Hungary	0.00
51	5	Vanuatu	0.00
52	3	Argentina	0.00
53	3	Denmark	0.00
54	3	Latvia	0.00
55		Estonia	0.00
Complete rankings at INTRL.SPORT