Travis Paterson

News staff

You can’t substitute experience. Those are the simple but important words stated by the head coach of Canada’s national rugby team, Kieran Crowley.

And by experience, Crowley is talking about Ander Monro and his right foot.

Recently re-located to Oak Bay, Monro is a Canadian born but Scottish-bred fly half who is returning after six professional years in Europe -- four with Edinburgh of the elite Magners League and two years with Colorno of the Italian Rugby Union.

Prior to departing for this week’s tour with Team Canada to play two International Rugby Board tests against Japan, in Sendai on Nov. 15 and Tokyo on Nov. 22, the 28-year-old explained his decision to move to Victoria.

“I was becoming a little bored of just being a pro rugby player,” said Monro, during a cold morning of training on the artificial turf at the Pacific Institute of Sports Excellence in Saanich. “With Colorno, I wasn’t playing at a high enough club level to feel it was a worthwhile achievement at this stage in my life.”

That stage of life includes a wife and infant son, born Oct. 5, within weeks of Monro arriving here.

Originally from Toronto, Monro’s family moved often for his dad’s military career. Monro grew up playing rugby at Glenalmond College boarding school in Scotland and represented Scotland at the Under-15, U16 and U19 levels. He was selected to the Scotland sevens squad in 2000 but never played in the tournament, though he won the goal-kicking competition. He used his Canadian passport to play for Canada in the 2006 Churchill Cup and since has a total of 17 games with the national side.

“Having played for Team Canada, I asked around to some of the guys and decided to move to Oak Bay, take up with the Castaway-Wanderers and train full time with the national program,” he said, and that’s what he did, beginning the season with CW in the Vancouver Island Rugby Union.

Ranked 12th in the world by the IRB, Canada’s roster includes seven athletes playing professionally in Europe, not counting Monro or the handful of players unavailable due to injury or club commitments.

Nearly all teams ranked above Canada boast entire rosters of players competing at a pro level. That’s where players with Monro’s experience are important.

Due to rule changes encouraging a faster game, the international brand of rugby has morphed in recent years. One of the changes is an increase in the amount of “aerial ping pong,” as Monro calls it. In a bid for more time, or to slow the game for the hard-working forwards, a fly half or designated kicker will boot the ball downfield, over the mass of players. Often, however, the ball is immediately booted back, and this is sometimes repeated three or four times in succession, with the two opposing fly halves controlling the tempo of the game.

It’s a trend that’s growing in elite European rugby union play, and will likely move to International Rugby. It’s a tactic Monro has experience with.

“It’s a part of the game, but I want to have all the tools,” said Monro, who is in a rare position of having left the pro game while expecting to become an even better player. “By coming to Canada I want to get a career going, I want to become part of Canada’s run at the Rugby World Cup 2011 (in New Zealand).”

Of course Monro isn’t Canada’s only man in the kicking department. UVic Vikes fly half Nathan Hirayama will share the fly half role with Monro. Hirayama scored all 11 points for the B.C. Bears in its loss in the America’s Rugby Championship final against Argentina, scoring a penalty conversion and a try which he converted.

Also in the the added kicking experience of scrum half James Pritchard, currently playing for the Bedford Blues of the English Championship league, as well as up-and-comer Matt Evans of Duncan.

International rugby comes to Victoria, 7 p.m. on Nov. 24 when Russia plays the B.C. Bears provincial side at the new Bear Mountain Stadium at City Centre Park in Langford.

sports@vicnews.com