The Conversation: Kicking it with Nathan Bombrys, CEO of Rugby Canada

Originally from the U.S., Nathan Bombrys spent over two decades overseeing professional rugby in the U.K., including time guiding one of Scotland’s top clubs. About two and a half years ago, he was named CEO of Rugby Canada. We met at the organization’s Downtown Vancouver office (it also has an outpost in Langford) to talk about the challenges Rugby Canada faces, as well as the economic impact it’s bringing to the province.

You’re currently overseeing WXV, the annual international women’s rugby union competition. The second edition takes place in Vancouver and Langley over three weeks. What are your expectations for the tournament?

Well, I’m excited to see our team go. We have an outstanding team. It’s a little bit under the radar in the world of rugby—we don’t get the recognition that the team wants and deserves. They beat New Zealand this summer—people wait a rugby lifetime to beat New Zealand. We’ve won tournaments. We’re building some momentum for that group.

How are sales going for the tournament?

They’re okay; I’d like them to be better. This will be our first home match in ’24. If we weren’t hosting this tournament, we wouldn’t be able to have home matches. The last time we hosted a game was in Ottawa in July 2023 and we got over 10,000 people for Canada against the Black Ferns [New Zealand’s women’s team]. We’re hoping for crowds of that nature, but it’s a different kind of tournament.

How is the Canadian rugby scene developing? Are people paying attention?

There’s a strong heritage of rugby in this country. Particularly in this province, in this part of the world. I always say Vancouver is the best rugby city in North America. And the metrics back it up. There’s a lot of passion and support for the sport. Look at how many rugby folks are going into the BC Sports Hall of Fame this year. It is a recognized sport in this part of the world, which is fantastic. If our women can go and really compete and have a good World Cup [in August and September of 2025], it would be a massive moment for Canada and a massive moment of national pride.

The annual SVNS tournament at BC Place in February has become super popular. Is that something you can replicate for other events? Would you want to?

SVNS is unique. It’s a weekend festival. It’s great fun, people dress up, make their plans; it’s a big moment for the rugby community to come together and have that celebration. It’s different. Sometimes it’s okay that it’s once a year as well—it’s a great weekend but it’s quite a heavy one. We don’t necessarily want to replicate SVNS.

The women’s program is having a lot of success, as you mentioned. The men’s teams seem to be having a little more trouble at the moment.

Yeah, we’re up against it. It’s challenging.

What can you do?

It’s been a long time, possibly a decade, since we’ve had consistent international matches. We’ve now had that this year a little bit. We’ve had that opportunity, but haven’t had the runway to develop our squad and develop our systems. The biggest thing we need going into 2025, when we have to qualify for the World Cup, is more time together. That comes at a cost. We need time for the squad to be together, prepare, play international rugby and be effective going into that qualification. All of our teams are operating on, in some cases, about 2 percent of our opposition in terms of budget. Even compared to the U.S. and the support they’re getting.

Why is that? Is that underfunding from Sport Canada?

No, not necessarily Sport Canada, just generally that’s how we’re funded. Other nations get greater support from World Rugby, the global federation, or they have traditional tournaments and competitions that make money. We have our SVNS, which is helpful. But we haven’t had those consistent fixtures that we can build up to be bigger events and occasions and generate revenues. We’re a nonprofit, so when we generate revenue it’s going right back into teams and programs.

What about at a grassroots level? Are we headed to the right place with rugby in this province and country?

I would say the community has bounced back well from the pandemic. Registration numbers are up across the country. We as an organization have invested in more marketing campaigns to get more young people into rugby, get them into clubs. We’re investing in some coaches in schools to get kids to transition from schools to club rugby. We’ve got a long way to go. We speak to the clubs; there are a lot of challenges they’re facing. But there’s a lot of interest in the sport as well. There’s been an increase of about 42 percent in women and girls’ registration since coming back from the pandemic. That’s just fantastic.

You’ve been in the job for over two years. What are the major successes that you’ve had during that time, and how can you keep the various programs moving forward?

The fact that we’ve got fixtures and are starting to get them in Canada and build them into events. The matches in July in Ottawa were seen as a real success. We need to build on that. We’re measuring the social and economic impact we make and we’re seeing these sporting events as positive economic drivers for cities. Our SVNS event brings around $25 million to the city. And the social engagement, the partnership we’ve had with First Nations, the athletes going out in the community—that’s just as important as the economic impact.

For you personally, it must have been an interesting transition coming to Canada. You’re from the U.S. but have spent the majority of your career in Scotland. What’s it been like?

I’ve worked in professional rugby since just after the game went professional in ’96. I’ve had some unique experiences. Being in the room for the formation and development of the United Rugby Championship; I ran professional teams. I was always the only North American in the room. And I was always reminded of that. But we had success. The clubs I ran, we won things and grew programs. In the back of my mind, I always felt I had some experiences and a perspective that could help in North America to support the game, and this was a chance for me to do that. Two years in, the reality of Tier 2—Canada is considered Tier 2 even though our women are Tier 1 in their performances—is that it’s very hard. I had someone in the Canadian sports system say that running an NSO [National Sport Organization] has got to be one of the toughest jobs. But I think we’re making some steps in the right direction. We’re starting to build. It doesn’t always go our way and there are some bad days, but I feel like we are starting to build something and starting to engage the business community and looking at attracting investment. All of our games have been on TSN, so we’re building on that. We have a really great opportunity to offer the business community if they want to sponsor and be associated with us.

This interview has been edited and condensed.