Birth name | Mike Pletch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Date of birth | April 12, 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Lucan, Ontario, Canada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 111 kg (245 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notable relative(s) | Dan Pletch (twin brother) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mike Pletch (born 12 April 1983) is a Canadian rugby union player, who plays for the Canada national rugby team. He plays as a hooker. Pletch, along with his identical twin brother Dan, was in the Canada squad for the 2007 World Cup. He is a graduate of McMaster University with a degree in Civil Engineering and Management.
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union or rugby league.
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby XIII in non-Anglophone Europe and South America, and referred to colloquially as rugby, football, footy or league in its heartlands, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 m (74 yd) wide and 112–122 m (122–133 yd) long with H-shaped posts at both ends. It is one of the two major codes of rugby football, the other being rugby union. It originated in 1895 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, as the result of a split from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) over the issue of payments to players. The rules of the game governed by the new Northern Rugby Football Union progressively changed from those of the RFU with the specific aim of producing a faster and more entertaining game to appeal to spectators, on whose income the new organisation and its members depended.
In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards and seven backs. In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16–23. Players are not restricted to a single position, although they generally specialise in just one or two that suit their skills and body types. Players that play multiple positions are called "utility players".
The United States men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States of America Rugby Football Union in men's international rugby union. USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States, and is a member of Rugby Americas North, one of six regional governing bodies under World Rugby. Until rugby returned to Olympic competition, with sevens at the 2016 Rio Games, the United States was the reigning Olympic rugby champion, having defeated the one other competitor in 1920 and the two other competitors at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
Henry Rangi Paul is a rugby union coach and former rugby league and rugby union player. A dual-code international, Paul won 24 caps for New Zealand in rugby league and 6 for England in rugby union, as well as rugby sevens. Paul played as a loose forward, stand-off, fullback, and occasionally as a hooker, and as a centre and fly-half in rugby union.
The Canada men's national rugby union team represents the Canada in men's international rugby union competitions. They are overseen by Rugby Canada the governing body of rugby union in Canada.
The Canada national rugby league team represents Canada in international rugby league football tournaments.
Jamie Cudmore is a Canadian former professional rugby union player who played as a lock and as a flanker. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he began his career with Capilano RFC in British Columbia. He then played professionally in Wales for Llanelli and Llandovery, and in France for Grenoble, Clermont and Oyonnax. He was nicknamed "Cuddles" by his teammates.
Canada East was one of two national representative rugby union teams from Canada that competed in the North America 4 Series. When the North America 4 was replaced by the Canadian Rugby Championship and Americas Rugby Championship in 2009, Canada East ceased to exist.
A drop goal, field goal, or dropped goal is a method of scoring points in rugby union and rugby league and also, rarely, in American football and Canadian football. A drop goal is scored by drop kicking the ball over the crossbar and between the posts of the goal posts. After the kick, the ball must not touch the ground before it goes over and through, although it may touch the crossbar, the uprights or an opponent. A drop goal in rugby union is worth three points, and in rugby league a drop goal is usually worth one point.
Dan Pletch is a Canadian rugby union player, who plays for the Canada national rugby team. He plays as a hooker or prop. Pletch, along with his identical twin brother Mike, was in the Canada squad for the 2007 World Cup.
James Gordon Pritchard is an Australian-Canadian professional rugby union and rugby league footballer, who currently plays his club rugby union for Ampthill in National League 1 following short spells with Old Albanian and Coventry. Pritchard is best known for his time with Bedford Blues, where he spent 12 seasons across two spells with the club, and he is the club's record points scorer with 2,883 points in all competitions, including 99 tries. He is also the RFU Championship all-time top points scorer with 2,673 points from 251 league and play-off games while playing for Bedford Blues and Plymouth Albion, as a fullback, wing or centre. Pritchard has played internationally for Canada, with whom he appeared in four Rugby World Cups, and is his countries all-time top points scorer with 607 points.
Kieran James Crowley is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player, who is the former head coach of Italy. He has also coached the New Zealand Under-19s in the 2007 World Championships as well as coaching provincial side Taranaki. He previously served as head coach of Canada. He also spent five seasons coaching Benetton Rugby.
The Westshore RFC is a rugby union club located in Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island. The club has the largest junior program on the island and is home to a number of Canadian national men's and women's team players.
Underwater Rugby started in the United States in 1979.
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word football normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly called football include association football ; Australian rules football; Gaelic football; gridiron football ; International rules football; rugby league football; and rugby union football. These various forms of football share, to varying degrees, common origins and are known as "football codes".
The Ontario Blues are the senior men's representative rugby team for Ontario. They were founded in 2009 to compete in the Americas Rugby Championship against other representative teams from Canada, Argentina, and the United States. In their inaugural season, the Blues suffered narrow losses against British Columbia and the Wolf Pack before defeating the Rock to advance to the Canadian Final. The Blues would again lose to BC, but defeated the U.S. Selects in the bronze medal match.
Conor Adam Trainor is a Canadian rugby union player. He is from Vancouver, where he started playing rugby at St. George's School.
Nathan Hirayama is a Canadian former rugby player. His primary position was fly-half, however, but he also played fullback. He played for both the Canadian national team and the Canadian sevens team. At club level, Hirayama played for the University of Victoria in the British Columbian Premiership and the BC Bears in the Canadian Rugby Championship.
The 2004 Canada rugby union tour of Europe was a short series of two matches played in November 2004 in Italy and England by Canada national rugby union team.