Conor Trainor is used to being the underdog; in fact, he uses this as motivation to get what he wants.
The fourth-year civil and environment engineering student has barely settled back into his seat at The University of Western Ontario following a whirlwind tour as part of Rugby Canada’s team competing at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
Trainor, a member of Western’s varsity rugby team, says his experience on the field as an Ontario University Athletics (OUA) player didn’t measure up to the competitive level of Rugby Canada. Those team members are among the best in the country. And he surprised everyone, including himself, by making the team.
“By the time I was actually there, I knew I deserved to be there. I knew as a team we deserved to be there,” he says.
“I realized I had to work really hard at it,” he adds. “Being able to make the team from the OUA league is a pretty big accomplishment.”
This isn’t the first time Trainor has had to prove his skills.
He was one of the smallest players on the ‘B’ rugby team at St. George’s School in Vancouver, but that didn’t stop him from tackling the physical sport for the first time in Grade 9.
“I was always one of the smallest in my grade. In Grade 11, I grew to be one of the biggest, so that really helped me in my Grade 12 year. That’s when I had my first really good year of rugby,” Trainor says.
After high school, he took a year off to work, travel and play rugby in New Zealand. He returned to Canada to try out for the Canada Under-20 team and, to his surprise, earned a spot on the team.
“We went to Wales that year (2008) to compete in the Junior World Championship. We ended up beating Fiji, which was a huge accomplishment, and took Scotland to double-overtime. We ended up coming 12th in the tournament,” he says.
He stepped up the following year to become one of the team leaders as they headed to Japan. Trainor thought this might have been the last time he would represent his country at the international competition level – but he was wrong.
In January 2010, he was asked by Rugby Canada’s 7s coach – only seven players on the team – to play on the men’s team.
“It started off pretty poorly,” he says. “The whole time I was thinking, I wanted to get in the 15s version of the team,” he says.
Finally, he got a break this spring and joined the 15s team in the Churchill Cup in England. “I started the first two games of that tournament,” he says, noting the team won both games, but lost in the final against the England A team.
Proving himself as a team player on and off the field allowed the outside centre to take his place on Rugby Canada’s World Cup team.
It was during his five months of training with the team in Victoria when Trainor began to see significant improvement in his skills. But the transition was not without its growing pains.
“I went from being one of the top players at Western to kind-of having the worst skills and not great conditioning. Immediately, my level had to rise up, and it did. It was either sink or swim,” he says.
“When I made the team, I was ecstatic for days,” he continues. “It was something I definitely didn’t think would happen – possibly ever – but definitely not this World Cup.”
Even though he made the team – a significant personal accomplishment – Trainor still had to prove he deserved to suit up for the games. He started at the bottom of the pack and had to earn his stripes – in this case red, white and black – to become one of the top players on the field representing Canada.
“There are 30 players on the team and I was one of the eight who didn’t dress at the start. The first game of the World Cup I moved into the bench. By the last game I was starting,” he says. “Just that was a pretty amazing experience to work my way up.
“When I got in the games as a reserve, I just tried to go in there and make the biggest impact I could.”
This included scoring two tries against the All Blacks New Zealand, the No. 1 team in the world famous for its intimidating Haka war dance.
In the end, the Canadian team placed fourth in Group A, three points away from automatically qualifying for the 2015 World Cup.
“I was sure to keep the balance of doing what was best for the team. But I made it my goal to be out there and did whatever I needed to do to be out there,” he says.
Trainor says he couldn’t have chased his rugby dreams if it wasn’t for the support offered by his professors and fellow Mustang teammates. “Whenever I come back I really have to buckle down, do the work and try not to get distracted, and remember what my main goals are,” he says.
With one goal under his belt, Trainor hopes he hasn’t peaked just yet. After playing in the Rugby World Cup, he now sees playing professionally as a viable option.
“I’m hoping I’m still at the start,” he says. “It’s such a huge game; it could take me anywhere.”
Barely settling back in London, Trainor leaves next week to participate in the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, as a member of the Canadian men’s 7s team.