Our new 28 year old prop, Sam Turner, is about to become a fully-fledged Canadian international. He’ll travel to Japan as Canada prepare to face the Brave Blossoms on September 5th and Fiji in the Pacific Nations Cup
Sam hails from Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada’s ‘rugby heartlands’ and has joined Cambridge from Clifton following their relegation from National One.
“Vancouver is a bit of a weird place. in that it’s one of the only places in Canada where rugby is bigger than Canadian football, as it’s called over there – Gridiron, American Football – but a big sport in Canada. I started off playing rugby when my dad took me to his old club. I played ice hockey as every good Canadian child does, but I went off that a little bit. And then my dad took me out to his home rugby club, Merlomas, and the rest is history!
“I think I was 12 or 13, the year that they started tackling, whatever year that was, back in the day. Fifteen years ago! I have always been this size. I’ve had the same shoe size since grade seven in Canada, year eight in the UK. But yeah, I’ve always been around the same size. I’ve always been put at prop because I’ve always been big!
“I’ve played around. though. I’ve done a little bit of eight, played lock for my university on a couple of occasions. I’ve played all across the front row as well. So I’ve played loose head, tight head, and hooker. And there was one game a couple of clubs ago where I played all three in the same match for two games in a row!
“I started the year, the last season, at Glamorgan Wanderers in Wales and I saw the opportunity to go play for Clifton and jumped at it as I’d played at Clifton previously. It’s a good club but it was a good exercise to go back to it. It was unfortunate that they got relegated last season but yeah that’s where I was playing before I had a conversation with Craig Newby. It was definitely promising, especially with a lot of the team having Champ experience. It’s where I want to go play eventually. I want to play the highest level of rugby possible. That’s part of the reason why, that Champ experience, it’s the next step for me, hopefully with Cambridge.
“I have, now, been selected to play for Canada. So I’m very excited for that opportunity, which has presented itself. I’ve been in conversation with Canada for a little while now, but they’ve finally given me the opportunity to go to Japan. The experience is definitely what I’m going there for and it’s really just experiencing that next step up and and getting that under my belt.
“The first trip away with with your country, not many people do it and it’s not something that I’m taking lightly – you’ve really got to grab it with both hands and just go for the ride and say yes to as much as you can and just do as much as you can and chat with coaches and all that, so it’s definitely something that I’m looking forward to, and something that I’ve been working towards for a long time.
“It’s the Canadian mindset – we’re very realistic people, but we do have that optimism there, so you’ve just got to keep hacking at it, and once you keep breaking at the wall, eventually you get through. The first game is against Japan, so it’s a 100th anniversary game for the first game against Canada and Japan. and so that’s a friendly, and then we’ve got game against Fiji, which is the first round of the Pacific Nations Cup.
“Depending on the outcome of that game, we’ve got either Japan or the United States in the next game after that. I fly out on the 25th of August – Unfortunately, I’ll be missing the first three games, which got me a little bit of stick from the boys. It’s definitely something that I’m conscious of, but these sorts of opportunities don’t come around that often, and you’ve got to take it as it comes, and it’ll put me in good stead for when I do come back and come roaring into the Leeds Tykes game!”