Canadian rugby squad set to tackle Brazil
While his hometown experiences are a rare bout of real Canadian winter, Luke Campbell of Victoria had other weather woes down in Sao Paulo as the No. 8 prepared to start today for Canada in its Americas Rugby Championship match against Brazil.
“It was a tough first couple of days with the rain but hot,” said the Oak Bay High graduate out of James Bay.
“But we have to bounce back quickly from the tough defeat against Uruguay. Now we’re looking forward to Brazil and we’ve really come together and things are starting to click and we’re looking forward to putting it together.”
Uruguay scored at the death in the 80th minute last weekend in Montevideo to steal a 20-17 victory over Canada to open the Americas Championship.
“The guys were hurting after the loss to Uruguay. [A win] is vital to get us back on the right track,” said Canadian starting flanker Kyle Baillie.
Canadian head coach Kingsley Jones of Sooke concurred: “It was a really tough way to lose. Hopefully, we use the experience to galvanize the group and take the disappointment and turn it into a positive.”
Uruguay, like Canada, has qualified for the 2019 World Cup in Japan. Brazil did not qualify and Canada needs a win today in terms of international reputation. This isn’t soccer. Canada is rightly expected to beat Brazil on the rugby pitch. But Jones is taking nothing for granted. “Brazil have come a long way in the last few years,” said the Canadian bench boss.
“We’re looking forward to a tough challenge in the scrum. We will have to play for the full 80 to get the result we want.”
Brazil was crushed 54-3 in its ARC opener last weekend against host Argentina XV.
“We’re not reading too much into Brazil’s result against Argentina XV,” said Jones.
“They faced a very good Argentinian team on home soil. We are anticipating a very different Brazil team [today]. We expect a game full of passion and commitment in a tough environment.”
Ciaran Hearn, who came out of Windsor Park in Oak Bay and a tremendous career with Castaway Wanderers, will start at centre and in doing so will move to No. 4 on the alltime Canadian list with 65 caps, surpassing Scott Stewart. Hearn is behind only former Victoria great Winston Stanley’s 66 caps, Al Charron’s 76 and Aaron Carpenter’s 80.
Josh Larsen of Parksville and University of Victoria Vikes alumnus Conor Keys will start today in the second row and former UVic Vikes star Jamie Mackenize at scrum-half. Will Percillier of Mill Bay, Noah Barker of Courtenay, Ryan Kotlewski of Westshore RFC and Dustin Dobravsky of CW will dress in reserve and be ready off the bench.