Zina Umeh, a third-year fullback for Women's Rugby and Graeme Moffat, head coach of Women's Rugby both have exciting opportunities with Rugby Canada this fall. Umeh is hoping for selection on the Canada Women's Sevens World Series squad and Moffat joins the Canada Men's Fifteens team as a skills coach for their upcoming European test matches.

Zina Umeh has been long listed for the Rugby Canada Sevens team going to the HSBC SVNS series this fall. Umeh is one of twenty-four that have been chosen to go to Langford, BC for the first round of selection. If she is chosen, she then heads to Chula Vista, California for second round of selection. From these camps, thirteen are selected for the touring national sevens team. The Canada Women's Sevens team head to Dubai (Nov 29-30) and Cape Town (Dec 6-7) for the beginning of the HSBC SVNS Series.

Umeh previously represented Canada in the 2025 Junior Pan Am games where she helped her team win bronze. She is excited at the possibility of stepping onto the world stage, "(I'm) hoping to go," Umeh said, "(but) I think any step is still an honour." Umeh is one of very few USPORTS athletes selected for the long list. She's also excited to play with athletes who have represented Canada on the world stage before, "I'm excited to train with a lot of these older girls. I've looked up to them (for years)." Umeh starts training in Langford on November 5^th.

Grame Moffat will travel to Europe in November as a skills coach for the Canada Men's Fifteens team, who are set to play test matches in Romania, Georgia, and Portugal. "It's a cool job cause I'm a skills coach, so I get to help the players," he shared, "I get three and a half weeks to make them better in their skills… I get to work on independent, unit and team skills… It's a challenge but its going to be quite exciting." The Canada team qualified for the 2027 World Cup in Australia, "it's the start of a journey for the team, they should be pretty excited and ready to learn," he said.

Moffat hasn't been involved in the national team since the world cup in 2019. Since then, the team has completely changed, "Completely different staff to the last time I've been involved… which is wild to think about… it will be exciting and a challenge." He expressed his gratitude for the opportunity, both to Rugby Canada and Pronghorn Athletics, "I get the opportunity to grow and learn and work in different environments. And then to bring it back here," it is an exciting opportunity that not many people could have. He says it's a unique part of Horns coaching staff to be able to coach in other teams and bring the knowledge back to their teams and programs.

We are excited to see Zina Umeh and Graeme Moffat show of their skills on the world stage and wish them luck as they continue to represent the program and their country with pride.