Mayo man who plays for Canada starts adventure in Australia

Born in Montreal, to an Irish mother and Canadian dad. Bred in Mayo county town Castlebar. Then recruited by Canada, and now living the rugby dream in Australia. Mark Balaski is a good example of the modern rugby world. Opportunities are utterly endless if one wishes to pursue them.

Reasons to move Down Under

Balaski has committed himself to play for Southern Districts, a Sydney club, for this year's season. There is a plausible reason, why he has chosen an engagement Down Under: “I had a rugby sevens contract with Canada, which would have carried into the new year. But I felt that I wanted to commit to the 15s, because we have our World Cup qualification coming up in August.” 

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Pending a good season, Mark will increase his chances getting picked for the crucial match against the USA in the Pacific Nations Cup:

“This tournament is our version of the Six Nations. Whoever comes last in the overall table won't qualify for the World Cup. So our first game is against the USA and will be pretty much be a toss up, and whoever wins that game will qualify for the World Cup essentially.”

Mark's new club, Southern Districts, is semi-professional and on the highest level you can play below Super Rugby. He has certainly come a long way from a young lad who started playing rugby with Castlebar RFC. 

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Not a straight career path

Balaski's career path was anything but straightforward. He started early with rugby. Of course, Mark played Gaelic football as well, for Castlebar Mitchels as a teenager. Then he caught the eyes of Connacht Rugby and played for their Academy.

But in general he had a tough time with injuries, and at a crossroads, decided to go on an Erasmus year in France, instead of renewing with Connacht, knowing he had the Canadian option on the back burner. After his return from the continent, Mark got in contact with Canada Rugby and they invited him to their academy in Vancouver. 

“I used to be predominantly a full-back/winger, so a back three player. But they moved me to fly-half straight away. It took a few games to kind of get to grips with that, but then once I started figuring it out, it was going really well,” states Mark.

In the Canadian team he is competing for the number 10 position with Peter Nelson, a Dungannon native who qualified for Canada through his grandmother. Nelson played in the 2019 World Cup and also has 60 caps for Ulster.

"That was the closest to crying I came"

“Peter Nelson is the starting 10 for Canada,” explains Balaski. “Him being an Irish fella was really good for me. Anything he saw, he'd kind of come over and just, let me know, 'you might want to think about doing this or that' or anything like that. Any tips or pointers he could give me, he was just a massive help.”

Unfortunately Mark had to deal with a third ACL injury, before he finally got his first international test cap in a home game in Ottawa against Romania, which ended in a 35-22 win for Balaski and his teammates. It was a short stint, but against Japan he got a decent run out with about 20 minutes played on full-back. 

The emotional moment came afterwards, when Mark visited Castlebar and presented his local rugby club with his Canada jersey: “That was the closest to crying I came over the whole thing.

I've always grown up looking at the jerseys in the clubhouse, and just staring at them being like: That must be so cool having your jersey up there. And I know all the names of the lads that are there because I grew up walking in after mini rugby and seeing those jerseys up on the wall. And those are there forever.”

During his time with Connacht he never got his jersey on the wall. It kept being a driving force for Mark. 
“Being a small part of the history of the club now is something I'm immensely proud of.”

And who knows, maybe some kid will walk past Mark Balaski's jersey and think: 'Look at this, he was from here and played at a World Cup.' Canada have three paths open to qualify for 2027, thanks to the expansion of the tournament from 20 to 24 teams. If Canada don't qualify through the Pacific Nations Cup, they get a second chance against a South American team. And if that fails, there will be a repechage tournament for the final spot.   

Maybe Mark's career choice with playing in Australia was a golden one, as the next World Cup will be held in that country. Good idea to get acclimatised early for the Castlebar boy Down Under.

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