Playing for Canada on the rugby pitch was a thrill of a lifetime for Kyle Gilmour.
"It was a huge honour," the St. Albert standout said of his stint with the national sevens at International Rugby Board-sanctioned events in New Zealand, Nevada, England and Scotland. "It was a huge learning experience for me and I hope to keep building on it for sure."
Gilmour, 23, was invited to the January selection camp as a result of his impressive performance in last year's Canadian Rugby Championship competition with the Calgary-based Prairie Wolf Pack.
"I wasn't expecting to make the team when I went out there but it turned out one of the guys couldn't make it and the coach called me up asked me if I would like to go. Obviously I took the opportunity and tried to make the most of it," said the Edmonton Rugby Union's senior player of the year in 2009.
In February the national sevens competed in Wellington and Las Vegas with Gilmour on the 13-man roster.
"It was a pretty cool experience," said the high school rugby product of the St. Albert Skyhawks. "It was my first experience with sevens so it was a big learning experience for me. It was also my first experience with the national team. It was good to get to meet some of the guys and get a feel for how it's run and what I've got to get used to if I want to be around the national team in the future."
In the seven-a-side format the six-foot-two and 215-pound buzz saw was deployed at prop and hooker.
"You don't typically get a ton of time on your first tours but I did play a full game against the States and that helped me to learn a lot. It's a difficult game just to watch and to try and duplicate. It's a lot easier just to play it and pick it up as you go and I found that was the best way for me to learn," said Gilmour, the star of a YouTube video of the training match dustup between Canada and the Kiwis in Wellington.
Gilmour is still a work in progress when it comes to the sevens brand of rugby, compared to playing 15-a-side.
"It's a huge difference. It's a lot faster. You kind of have to go against all of your reactions from playing 15s. In sevens I have to think more about what I was doing all the time," said the valuable flanker for St. Albert's first 15. "It's a lot of agility and speed and ball skills and those are some of the aspects of my game I have to keep working on."
Gilmour was rewarded for his efforts with a spot on the national roster for the double tournament excursion to the London Sevens and Edinburgh Sevens.
"Obviously they saw something they liked in me," said the St. Albert premier team's MVP in 2008. "I got a lot more time playing in Edinburgh. I played in the last two games. I played full games and we ended up winning both of them [17-5 against Portugal and 17-12 against Russia in the shield final].
"In sevens, Canada is one of the teams that passes more than anybody. That's how we score most of our tries, just by moving it back and forth and then we'll hit up in the middle and make a break. We just kind of wear teams down like that usually and that's where we find our success."
Gilmour's role was basically the same the second time around with the national sevens.
"I was a bit more comfortable with it and I was getting used to the game a bit more," he said. "I was more of a either pass the ball or take it up and take guys on and I kind of chose to do that a bit more and it seemed to work out well.
"The more minutes I get, I think the better I get. I've just got to keep building on it and try and do some sevens training in the summer and see what happens next year."
Rugby sevens is now recognized as an Olympic sport and will make its debut in 2016.
"I really want to see how far I can go playing sevens."
Rounsefell Cup
In between gigs with the national sevens, Gilmour sharpened his skills with the Castaway Wanderers, the Rounsefell Cup provincial champions in the British Columbia Rugby Union premier division.
"It was a great experience to go out there and play at that level. It's a bit higher than what I'm used to here," said a key player in St. Albert's first premier men's provincial championship in club history last year. "The team struggled a bit before Christmas, I guess, and then a few guys came back from injury and there was myself and a few others who came in to join the team. We all kind of gelled together. We went on a bit of a run and ended up winning it."
In the semifinals Gilmour and the Castaways butted heads with the 2010 provincial champion University of Victoria Vikes, led by Team Canada prop Andy Tiedemann of St. Albert. The Wanderers prevailed 38-18.
"It was fun. We came across each other a couple of times in the game," Gilmour said of the three-time Churchill Cup national team player with a closet full of caps. "It was a great game. Andy played awesome [and scored a try in the second half]. It was a lot of fun to match up against him and it was good to come out on top for sure."
After the season the Wanderers honoured Gilmour as their rookie of the year.
"There were a few other guys that came out for their first season with them and their national team players so it could've really went to any one of us," he said. "It really meant a lot. I guess it's just a credit to my work ethic. I was always kind of in the top two, if not always the leader, for tackles on the team. Sometimes that stuff goes unnoticed but the coaching staff really noticed it."
Gilmour's first training session since returning home was Thursday night in preparation for today's match against the Titans in Red Deer for the 0-3 firsts. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m.
"We're hoping we can turn it around this weekend. Sounds like there has been a couple of heartbreaking losses but we've got the team to win games. Whether it's a case of a slow start or guys just not performing, it's something we'll grow out of. We're all pretty confident we can get back to the provincial final this year and that's our goal," said Gilmour, who is expected to see action with the Wolf Pack after starting four straight games at flanker for them last year, including the 19-8 loss to The Rock in the playoff final in St. John's, Nfld.
