New Orleans Gold Rugby Club signed Canadian international lock and back row, Kyle Baillie for the 2019 Major League Rugby season. The 28-year-old player is from Summerside, Prince Edward Island. He is 6’5″ and weighs 240 pounds.
Baillie graduated from Three Oaks High school and played rugby for the Axemen, winning Rugby PEI top junior athlete honors in 2009. He has played club rugby for the Castaway Wanderers, the Edmonton Druids, St. Albert RFC, Westshore RFC, and the Halifax Tars.
He also played representative rugby for Atlantic Rock and the Prairie Wolf Pack in the Canadian Rugby Championship.
In 2015 he began his professional rugby career with Eastern Suburbs in Sydney, Australia. In 2016 he played with the Ohio Aviators, scoring six tries in his six starts. In January 2017 he had a trial with the Saracens in the English Premiership but dislocated his shoulder in the LV Cup, thus missing out on a long-term contract. In May 2017 he signed with the London Scottish in the Green King IPA Championship for the 2017-2018 season. In Summer, 2017 he went to New Zealand ahead of the 2017 tests for Canada.
Baillie has played for Canada A in the Americas Rugby Championship in 2014, the Americas Pacific Challenge, and the Pacific Nations Cup. He also played for the Canada Senior team, debuting on February 13, 2016, at the Americas Rugby Championship against the U.S. He has 25 caps and has started 19 matches while scoring three tries. His last test was against the USA on Mar 8, 2019, in the Americas Rugby Championship.
Baillie is part of Canada‘s 2019 Pacific Nations Cup squad that will play the USA, Fiji, and Tonga prior to pre-Rugby World Cup matches against Leinster, the USA, and the BC All-Stars.
Baillie was a key contributor with NOLA Gold in 2019 and his three-year extension with the team will have him in New Orleans through the 2022 season.
Comments
Ryan Fitzgerald, General Manager siad that “Kyle is an outstanding player for us and is just as good, if not a better teammate and leader. He’s a guy that everyone in the clubhouse respects and Kyle leads with his toughness and loyalty of fighting for the guys next to him. He’s also another versatile player that can play No.’s 4-8. It’s great to have Kyle back in Gold for another 3 years.”
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