Rugby squad set to do Canada proud at Rio Olympic Games

RIO DE JANEIRO — The Olympic bus lanes may be an early failure, the Olympic information system may be a mess, the waters of the beaches and bays may be thinly disguised sewers, and the plumbing and electrical workmanship at the Olympic Village may be the kind Holmes on Homes would tear out with a sad shake of the head, and start all over.

But inside the Team Canada bubble, all is swell.

“I’ve heard stuff, and read on Twitter that other countries are kind of having a heyday with things,” the Canadian rugby sevens captain, Jen Kish, said Monday.

Rugby sevens, making its Olympic debut here in Rio, is a fast game — two seven-minute halves of barely controlled speed and mayhem — and it will be a fast Olympics for the women’s squad. The tournament starts on Saturday and is over by Monday.

Kish, the liberally tattooed 28-year-old from Edmonton, who looks as though you could break rocks on her arms and legs and shoulders, is supremely confident in the team’s ability to be on the medals podium.

“People should have high expectations of us, because we have high expectations of ourselves. Over the years, we have built the case for being No. 3 in the world,” she said.

New Zealand, Australia and Team GB may top most lists of likely medalists, but head coach John Tait, a 6-foot-8 giant who earned 37 caps for Canada’s national men’s rugby squad, said not being on the podium would be a surprise.

“The teams that would keep us from doing that would have to perform better than we’ve ever seen before, because I believe if this team is on form, which I expect it to be, we’re next to impossible to beat,” he said.

Coaching it, he said, can be stressful.

“It’s amazingly fast and such a variety of styles from one team to the next, and the game can turn on a dime. One mistake, one bad decision with possession, momentum can shift and it’s anyone’s game when that happens.

“We’re at the stage now where we’re talking about the mental thing more than anything else. The girls have grown so much technically and tactically over the last four years, and now it’s about composure and just being able to execute under that kind of pressure.

“That will be the difference in this tournament.”

It’s a big ask: To emulate the team that may have been the Canadian story of the London Games. But Kish doesn’t think her teammates will be overwhelmed by the size of the stage.

“We’ve played in big stadiums before, we’ve deal with the press,” she said. “For me, the butterflies will be the same as before any tournament.

“Were trying to keep our world as small as possible, and stay in the bubble.”