Fanning eyes return to rugby
By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter
Photo Courtesy of Ward Fanning
The sport of rugby isn’t undefeated when it comes to chewing up athletic carries with an assortment of injuries, but very few slip through the cracks and enjoy a lifetime in the sport without any broken bones.
Fanning, now 24, is one of the few who hasn’t had an ACL shredded or a femur snapped in half due to the collision sport.
That doesn’t mean he’s been injury-free.
Born and raised in Strathmore, Fanning starred with the Strathmore High School Spartans rugby squad since he was in junior high and dominated the sport all throughout his time at the high school – all except half of one season where he sat out with a minor skull fracture.
“It’s funny, whenever people hear about the injury – now or back then – they think it was something really serious, or life-threatening, but that wasn’t the case,” said Fanning.
During warm-ups one afternoon before a tilt with the Chestermere High School Lakers, Fanning went to greet a few of his teammates from his summer club, the Calgary Irish. Walking over to say hello, he stumbled and fell onto one of his teammate’s knees. The pressure of the fall concentrated on his left eye and it blew out his eye cavity.
“It was one of those injuries where I looked fine. I didn’t have the greatest control of my eye muscles in that eye, but I felt relatively fine,” said Fanning. “It just sounded way worse than it actually was.”
The constant wear and tear from playing 15 seasons with a multitude of teams might have caught up to him three years ago when the retina behind his left eye started peeling off.
“It wasn’t directly a rugby-related injury. Apparently it’s fairly common in men between the ages of 20 and 40,” said Fanning. “I started developing little holes in the back of my eye and eventually I couldn’t see out of that eye. I had to go into emergency surgery to repair it and couldn’t do anything for a while afterwards.”
The timing of the surgery was disastrous. Unable to stand or walk for several weeks following the procedure, the rugby field felt eons away.
It was especially heart breaking considering Fanning just wrapped up his first few practice sessions with the Prairies Wolf Pack, one of four teams competing for spots on the national team.
“We loved his physical attributes. I have never seen anyone work harder than him on the field,” said Rob Amey, former skills coach with the Wolf Pack and current head coach of the Calgary Saracens. “He also had great tenacity and was a great tackler.”
The Wolf Pack competes in the Canadian Rugby Championship, the highest level of domestic rugby in Canada. As the season goes on and teams compete for the MacTier Cup, players can be chosen and whisked away to other leagues and camps, working their way up to the national team.
“Just to get an invite (to the Wolf Pack) was a really cool opportunity,” said Fanning. “I only trained with them a little bit, but the coaching was amazing and I learned so much.”
Fanning was a promising prospect in the Wolf Pack system. When given the ball, there wasn’t anything that could slow him down. Fanning would run full speed through a brick wall, in the middle of a hurricane up against an army of machine gun-wielding bears.
“I go 100 miles per hour when I have the ball. All-out, hard working and make the other team earn every tackle, that’s how I like to play,” said Fanning. “I’m most effective when my teammates find me with the ball in open space so I can run lines as hard as possible.”
But Fanning’s mad dashes have halted as of late. Currently, he is training with the Saracens, a Division 2 club in Calgary competing in the Rugby Alberta and aspiring to join the Division 1 rankings. Due to the longer than anticipated winter the Calgary region has endured this year, the Saracens currently practice indoors while Fanning waits to hear if he can return to the sport he loves.
Even though it has been three years since the retina surgery, the Wolf Pack haven’t given up on the talented winger. They continue to extend invites to their camp; Fanning just needs a clean bill of health to go through with it.
“Their offer still stands for him,” said Amey. “They want to see him get better and come back, but I also know how important his eyesight is in the career he is trying to pursue. So there’s a lot going on that he needs to think about.”
Fanning has a meeting with his doctor April 23 to determine if it is safe enough for him to participate in the high level of rugby once again. To help pass the time, Fanning is working on a thesis for his biophysical chemistry Master’s degree, and acting as assistant coach with the Spartans girl’s rugby team.
“There are a lot of things that would go into my decision to return to the Wolf Pack if they still want me to come out. I would love the opportunity to go back if everything works out in the end,” said Fanning. “I guess we will just have to wait and see.”