The New England Free Jacks obtained Cole Keith in a trade with the Toronto Arrows for salary cap considerations for the 2023 Major League Rugby season. The 25-year-old loosehead/tighthead prop (26 in May) from Sussex, New Brunswick is 6’1″ and 260 lbs.
Cole played in 16 matches, starting 13 for the Arrows in 2022, and has made 46 appearances since 2019.
Cole played 608 minutes in 12 matches, starting 9, in the 2021 season. He played 313 minutes in five games in the truncated 2020 season, starting 4. During 2019 he played 414 minutes in 13 games, starting 3, including the MLR semifinals.
Cole went to Sussex High School in New Brunswick and played for the Belleisle Rovers, the Under-16 and Under-18s Spruce, and the Atlantic Rock provincial team.
In 2016 moved to Victoria, British Columbia, joined James Bay Athletic Club and became part of the Canadian Centralized Group. In 2016 he played for Canada’s Under-20s in the World Rugby Junior Trophy competition qualifier against the U.S. In 2017 and 2018 he played for Canada A in the Americas Pacific Challenge in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Cole had his debut for the Senior National Team against Chile at Langford, British Columbia on Feruary11, 2017 in the Americas Rugby Championship. He has 25 caps for Canada.
He helped Canada win the 2019 Rugby World Cup Repechage, a round-robin competition with Kenya, Germany, Hong Kong, and Canada for the last remaining RWC 2019 spot. He was selected for the final 2019 RWC roster for Japan and played against Italy in Fukuoka on 26 September and against New Zealand at Oita on 2 October.
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