Canada will get its first official glimpse of a new ‘elite’ rugby team on September 9 when the Ontario Arrows take on the Glendale Merlins at Infinity Park in Colorado. Announced publicly in a brief press release on Friday afternoon, the Ontario Arrows Rugby Club are a new and independent team co-founded by the management team of the Ontario Blues to increase the volume of ‘sub-international’ fixtures for high performance players and help bridge the gap between domestic and international rugby.

The team will initially be populated largely from the existing Blues roster, 2017 Canadian Rugby Championship runners-up and winners of the MacTier Cup in five of the last seven years. Bolstering the group will be select individuals from Eastern Canada, with standouts from the Atlantic Rock expected to receive invitations.

As professional rugby prepares to re-launch in the USA next spring in the form of Major League Rugby, Arrows General Manager Mark Winokur has confirmed that while a professional outfit may not be immediate, it is definitely in their sights.

“This will be privately funded with some compensation structures being reviewed; at worst, this would be a short term goal of the program.”

The Arrows will operate independently of the CRC program and Rugby Ontario, but has retained much of the off-field infrastructure. Heading up the coaching staff will be Chris Silverthorn, who has been on the Blues coaching staff since 2010.

“This is a privately funded operation working closely with Rugby Ontario. Obviously it makes sense to have strong links to the largest rugby population in Canada and to the success of the Blues program. We are fortunate enough to have retained the current Blues staff for the Glendale match. Since Chris Silverthorn was named head coach in 2012 the Blues have gone 35-10 in all matches so it again makes sense to take advantage of the opportunity.”

While becoming a full member of MLR in 2018 is not on the cards, multiple sources have indicated to Americas Rugby News that the team is set to play a series of ‘friendlies’ against MLR sides next year. In addition, matches against potential MLR targets in the east – Chicago and New York have been all but confirmed – are to be added to Ontario’s fixture list in 2018. While Winokur stopped short of confirming details, many of which are likely still in development, he admits that talks are ongoing with multiple teams south of the border.

“For a number of reasons, the Arrows will not be an official MLR team in 2018. There are discussions with many organizations, including MLR teams, about high performance games next year. There are a good number of organizations that are on the same page as we are and there have been very positive discussions with all. It is certainly possible that a Northern/Eastern group of teams will find ways to engage in 2018.”

The team name itself is notable. Most expected the side to be based in Toronto, the largest metropolitan area in Canada, however the team has retained its provincial link. This of course suggests that the team has not yet secured a permanent home venue, but don’t expect there to be a re-branding once it does.

“We are currently evaluating a number of venues in Southern Ontario and would want to have this in place by spring of 2018. We are open to all possibilities at this stage. There are lots of possibilities but we are happy to represent the province and the ‘Ontario’ brand which has built up some capital in rugby. That’s not to say no, but we would need a compelling reason to limit our fan base to one particular city.”

Fans will also note that the Glendale team will be playing under the Merlins banner. The Raptors brand has now been exlusively retained for MLR fixtures. Lineups for the match are expected to be similar to the Blues-Raptors match that took place on May 20 in Burlington.

This appears to be the first and only viewing of the Arrows that we will get this year with no further matches in 2017 scheduled at this time due to a congested international fixture list that includes the upcoming Americas Pacific Challenge and November test series.

The press release in its entirety can be read below.

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ONTARIO ARROWS AIMING AT ELITE RUGBY TARGETS

The Ontario Arrows Rugby Club are set to launch in September with a very challenging match against Glendale Merlins in Glendale, Colorado, on September 9th.

The Arrows, who will be made up of high performance senior men’s players from Ontario and Eastern Canada, will build on and work with the Ontario Blues of the Canadian Rugby Championship, to provide sub-international fixtures for emerging and established Canadian players seeking to increase their high performance involvement.

Named jointly after the Avro Arrow – Canada’s world-class jet fighter program that was terminated in the 1960s, originating from Downsview, Ontario – and the primary hunting tool of the Ontario First Nations people, the Arrows will play in Ontario navy blue, Nickel belt grey, and Harvest gold.

The bulk of the initial squad will come from the Blues, who have a 28-12 all time record in the CRC and who have either won or been in the CRC final for the last seven years straight, with other selected players joining from the eastern provinces.

“We are really excited to be part of the first Arrows team and looking forward to a great day in Denver. Our thanks to Glendale for hosting,” said Arrows general manager Mark Winokur. “We are both trying to put our players on a better development pathway and it should be a great game.”

Ontario, playing under the Blues name, and Glendale, under the Raptors banner, met in Burlington, Ontario in May of this year, Ontario coming out on top by 43-25.

The Arrows vs Merlins match will be part of Infinity Park’s 10-year celebration and will kick off at 3pm MDT, 5pm EDT. Broadcast and streaming details will be announced soon.