Challenging foes await sevens squad

Its boycott over, the Canadian men’s sevens team leaves Saturday for the first event of the 2018-19 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in Dubai.

While the Canadian men worked out on their own during a bitter two-month labour dispute with Rugby Canada, they only returned to the fold Nov. 1 and have had limited training with coach Damian McGrath in advance of Dubai.

Canada opens Nov. 30 against England before facing Australia and Japan in what McGrath calls a “particularly challenging group.”

“We’ve watched on social media over the last two or three months all these three teams preparing,” McGrath said. “They’ve been at tournaments around the world. They’ve had full pre-seasons, so it’s making it even more harder.

“We haven’t played a game. We’ve only had two weeks of fitness work and we’re playing two of the best sides plus a team in Japan that’s hosting the next Olympics, so they ’re beginning their preparations now and getting a good squad together.”

Upset at the contract they were offered and offended by what they saw as a Rugby Canada effort to marginalize sevens by having one centralized pool of players, the sevens squad refused to sign new deals.

Wounds from the labour dispute are still fresh. But captain Nate Hirayama said the players are as ready as they can be.

“We’ve made the best of the situation that we could,” he said. “There’s lots of positive feelings on the team.”

One plus is the players are closer than ever because of the dispute.

“We are just playing for each other because that’s our biggest motivation,” said Hirayama, who led all scorers last season with 334 points. “It has definitely galvanized us. We just want to keep pursuing our dreams here and hopefully turn this whole thing into a positive.”