Secret RWC Superstar: Meet the player crippled in a car crash who is now hoping to knock France out the tournament

In the increasingly professional world of Rugby, there are still a few secret heroes players representing their country against all odds. We meet one of them: Canada’s Ray Barkwill

In 2011, Ray Barkwill toured New Zealand to watch the World Cup as a fan. He was 31, and had long buried the ambition expressed in his high school yearbook to play rugby for the Canadian national team.

After a horrific head-on car crash shattered his foot and left him unable to lace up a studded boot for two years, rugby had become the sport he loved playing for fun and for the opportunity to travel around the world – to Australia for postgraduate studies in Perth and to the land of the All Blacks on a World Cup pilgrimage.

Four years on, the 35-year-old Canadian hooker has been at the heart of Pool D action, representing the Maple Leafs against Ireland and Italy, plotting how to do something special against France, and featuring large and bushy in the great World Cup beard debate.

“It is kind of wild to think I was sitting there watching Tonga v New Zealand at the last World Cup opening ceremony and this year I was watching the England v Fiji game preparing to play myself,” he says. “Four years ago, I was at the bar drinking, having a good time. This time I’m in the ice bath, but feeling the same experience. The buzz is fantastic.”

It is pretty wild, too, to reflect that Barkwill was 32 – the average age of retirement for professional rugby players – when he won his first cap for Canada against Samoa in November 2012.

No wonder he is so appreciative of the opportunity to play on the World Cup stage, either in the starting XV or, against France, coming on from the bench in a rotational role.

“I would trade every day I had as a fan to have this experience as a player,” he says. “I’ll look back at the World Cup next week, next month, 10 or 15 years down the road, and remember every detail about it.”

Barkwill’s journey is an inspiring story of drive, determination and overcoming setbacks.

He grew up playing a variety of sports. At James Morden Public School in his home town of Niagara Falls, rugby became his life, largely thanks to a Kiwi coach, though he continued as a high-level baseball player representing the province of Ontario until the age of 20.

“I got a job and played club rugby, and that was it,” he says. “At the age of 24, I went to Brock University and decided to try to pursue rugby at the highest level I could achieve. I played for my university and for the province of Ontario.”

Three years later, he captained Brock to its first provincial rugby championship title, but life was tough as he juggled midnight shifts in a foundry, pouring iron and cleaning brake parts, with university classes that began at 8am.

At Brock, Barkwill met an Australian exchange student and realised rugby could take him around the world. “I applied to do post-graduate work in New Zealand and Australia,” he recounts. “I liked a teaching qualification course at Curtin University in Perth and, at 29, I went out there and started playing rugby for the university and for the state of Western Australia in the Premier Grade.

“After we won the Premier, Western Force, Perth’s rugby union club, asked me if I’d like to join their extended squad for the Super 15. That’s where I got my next step. I was actually at the World Cup when I got that phone call. It was crazy because I was 31 at the time and it seemed pretty cool to have a professional side inviting me to join their playing squad.”

On his return to Perth after the World Cup, he trained with Western Force and it all kicked off. “Before I knew it, Kieran Crowley and Gareth Rees were emailing me about returning to Canada so I could showcase myself in the domestic competition,” he says. “I started playing again for Ontario in August of 2012. I made the Canada ‘A’ side in small competition between United States, Argentina and Uruguay, and won my first cap for Canada in November 2012.”

Barkwill is the kind of player that goes off to have a head wound sealed with 15 staples and comes back on minutes later. He does not mention his foot injury unless pressed, though he had to learn how to walk again.

“I was playing at university in 2008, driving to my club, when I was in a terrible head-on collision,” he explains. “The gas pedal went through my foot leaving it pretty mangled up.

“I had to go through numerous doctors, surgeries, pain specialists, court cases. It was troublesome hearing naysayers saying specifically that I wouldn’t be able to play again, but I’ve always been that guy who was told they weren’t good enough.

“I am 5ft 9, I’m 100 kg. I’ve been told I’m too small, not fast enough and being told I wouldn’t be able to perform at that level on the rugby field just motivated me more. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before. It was just a bigger challenge. I used that negativity towards myself to work harder.

“My goal was just to get back and play again. I had always wanted to play for Canada and make a World Cup squad. I thought 2011 was going to be the year for it because of my form and hard work, but that injury set me back.

“So when I had the opportunity to go to college in Australia, it was just about having fun at rugby. Having that terrible car accident made everything fall into place.

“The way I approach the game is I work my butt off training, preparing for each match, doing warm-up reps, kicking balls, practising my line outs, but I am still having fun. Obviously I take performing at the highest level seriously, but I don’t over-stress about it.

“I find if I’m enjoying the experience, then all the work I’ve put in falls into place. If you’re having fun, you play your best rugby. It worked for me because I am on the World Cup stage. I’ve played two games so far and played some pretty good rugby. Hopefully I’ll do something special for Canada – like help knock out France.”