Beukeboom trades rain for sun with Canadian men’s rugby team

Brett Beukeboom didn’t think twice about swapping English rain for Uruguay’s sun and humidity.

After helping his rugby club to a league victory last weekend, the Canadian took an eight-hour bus ride home from Leeds to the town of Penzance in southwest England.

Beukeboom barely had a chance to unwind when he got a call from men’s national team head coach Mark Anscombe. Canada had just lost to the United States in Americas Rugby Championships play and was facing a number of injuries.

Despite knowing the travel nightmare ahead of him with the next tournament game set for Uruguay, Beukeboom bolted for the airport without hesitation.

“Any chance to be with the national team is a great honour,” he said Friday from Montevideo. “To be called in was something I couldn’t turn down.”

The 26-year-old from Lindsay, Ont., will earn his 23rd Test cap today as one of five changes to the starting lineup when Canada visits Uruguay in its fourth of five ARC matches.

Beukeboom’s South American odyssey started with a six-hour train ride to London before a flight to Miami and finally a connection to Montevideo — a trip that took about 40 hours from door to door.

“It was a long couple days,” said Beukeboom, the nephew of former NHL defenceman Jeff Beukeboom. “But to trade the rainy days in England for Uruguay is pretty nice.”

Ranked 20th in the world, the Canadians (1-2) played their first three tournament games on home soil. They lost to Argentina’s second-tier side 20-6 on a snowy pitch in Langford, before downing No. 30 Chile 36-15 on the same field.

The 17th-ranked Americans then thumped Canada 51-34 last weekend in soggy Burnaby.

The Canadians called up a relatively inexperienced squad for the event with an eye on development ahead of two crucial World Cup qualifiers against the U.S. later this year.

Most of the Canada’s top internationals aren’t with the team, but Beukeboom said there’s plenty of promise in the current group.