Jamie Cudmore says the time was right to come home.
The 40-year-old former Canadian international, one of Canada's best-known rugby exports, is leaving France to groom the next wave of rugby talent in his role as head coach of the newly reformed Pacific Pride Academy on Vancouver Island.
"Family-wise we've been looking at a move back over really the last three, four years," Cudmore said.
His wife Jennifer-Joie Cudmore, an entrepreneur, was frustrated with France's red tape. The couple's portfolio in France included over the years a wine bar/restaurant and a sports bar/nightclub, not to mention a line of wine with the cheeky name of Sin Bin.
The couple is looking at several new business ventures in Canada.
In typical fashion, the Cudmore family has made the return home a new experience in itself. Leaving Aix-en-Provence in France, they took a train to Rotterdam and then a cruise ship to Iceland, Greenland and St. John's, N.L., where Cudmore's wife is from.
The family will then make its way out west.
Cudmore leaves France somewhat disillusioned at the state of professional rugby there, quitting his coaching role at the Oyonnax club because of issues over the chain of command.
"It's a pretty difficult time in France right now," Cudmore said. "It's not a question of who's the best coach or who's the best qualified, it's more a question of who's the ear of the president."
Plus with kids aged nine and seven, it seemed a good time to leave.
"For us, in terms of family, it's the right move," said Cudmore. "And for me to be able to still be involved in rugby and helping out with Rugby Canada and being involved in the Pride program, which I was a member of way back in the day, it's a win-win for everybody."
For national team coach Kingsley Jones, the addition of Cudmore brings a Canadian rugby icon back into the fold. And for Cudmore's young charges, the new Pacific Pride boss has been done there, done that.
Cudmore, a native of Squamish, B.C., represented Canada at four World Cups from 2003 to 2015 and won 43 caps for his country. The hard-nosed lock forward played overseas for Llandovery and Llanelli in Wales and FC Grenoble, ASM Clermont Auvergne and Oyonnax in France.
He retired as a player in 2017, working on his coaching skills and speaking out about concussion awareness. No stranger to concussions himself, he has filed a formal complaint against Clermont over the way the club handled his medical issues — which is working its way through the French authorities.
The chiselled Cudmore was known as a rugby enforcer, a hard-hitting six foot five and 265 pounds.
"I play my game fair, but I play it hard," Cudmore, whose nickname was the unlikely Cuddles, said while still playing.
Disciplinary committees did not always agree.
Cudmore could elicit laughs as well as groans, however. Fluently bilingual from his time in France, Cudmore drew laughs during the 2015 Rugby World Cup when he wandered — deliberately — into a French team huddle before a lineout, only to be dragged away by a French forward when he was finally noticed.
Cudmore coached throughout his playing career, starting with his club days in Canada. He coached at the Clermont Youth Academy as well as the under-23 team and was an assistant coach with Canada at the Americas Rugby Championship in 2016. He served as head coach with Oyonnax in 2017 and most recently was director of rugby for Provence Rugby.
The new Pacific Pride Academy will run approximately 10 months a year out of the Rugby Canada Al Charron National Training Centre in Langford B.C. It will field a team in the 2019-2020 B.C. Rugby Men's Premier League season starting in September.
The Pacific Pride will be largely made up of uncapped players from across Canada considered one to three seasons away from playing senior international rugby.
Cudmore looks to help the players prepare for life on and off the rugby field.
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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
