All about the future for the home team

There's no denying where things are at for Canada's men's rugby sevens team — they're at the bottom.

Of the 13 men who will wear red this weekend at B.C. Place, just two can really be considered veterans: 24-year-old Jake Thiel and 26-year-old Phil Berna.

The rest are players who have come into the fold since last summer's Tokyo Olympics. A whole slew of famous names hung up their boots after Tokyo, including Nathan Hirayama, Harry Jones, Connor Braid, Conor Trainor and Justin Douglas.

The look to the future began last September, when World Rugby ran a two-stop season, played only in Vancouver and Edmonton and with a shortened roster of teams.

Most of the Canadians who are playing this weekend played in those tournaments, plus tournaments in Dubai, Spain and Singapore since.

The crowd at last September's tournament was small, with the province still limiting crowd capacity. This weekend's won't burst past 30,000 like it has in years past, but organizers are hopeful to hit 27,000, full capacity for the lower bowl.

It will almost feel like March 2020 again, when the Canada Sevens proved to be one of the last major global sporting events before the COVID-19 pandemic set in.

At that tournament, the veteran Canadian squad finished third and looked to be peaking toward Tokyo.

This weekend, Thiel and his teammates are under no illusions: they're still building the foundations to their game.

“Results-wise, it's been a difficult year, but each tournament we kind of build on and hopefully this (weekend) is where we're going to hit our peak and keep building and keep getting better,” Thiel said.

In personal terms, this weekend is a big one for Thiel. The lanky forward missed out on last weekend's tournament in Singapore with a calf strain, but is back fit and raring to go.

Singapore was a tough go for the Canadians, who didn't win a game on the weekend.

“I plan on playing every other tournament I can, I never like missing stops no matter what,” Thiel said.