Rugby Canada men's national team head coach Kingsley Jones looks on at his introduction in Vancouver on Oct. 24, 2017.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
After losses in Uruguay and Brazil, 21st-ranked Canada looks to get back on track Friday when it hosts No. 29 Chile in the Americas Rugby Championship.
A revolving-door roster and unexpected dump of snow ahead of the game at Langford, B.C., haven’t helped Canadian coach Kingsley Jones, however.
The former Wales captain tapped into his local knowledge, taking his team to a nearby soccer field where his daughter plays. The locals helped clear the field, allowing the Canadian men to have a couple of one-hour training sessions.
With Season 2 of Major League Rugby under way, Jones has had to negotiate player releases during the tournament. Half of his 28-man roster for this stage of the event comes from MLR teams – including seven from the Toronto Arrows, who play Friday in Houston.
Canada is missing many of its first-choice players, who are overseas with their clubs.
The hope is Jones will be able to draw on his MLR resources as needed for the final two tournament games against an Argentina XV – the Pumas are once again fielding a reserve team – in Langford on March 1 and the 13th-ranked Americans in Seattle on March 8.
After two rounds, the Argentines (2-0-0, 10 points) top the table ahead of Uruguay (2-0-0, eight points). Canada (0-2-0, one point) stands fifth in the six-team competition.
On Saturday, Argentina and Uruguay face off in Buenos Aires while the Americans host Brazil in Austin, Texas.
Jones is not making excuses, however. He believes his team has more than it has shown at the tournament to date.
Canada lost 20-17 to Uruguay and 18-10 to Brazil while Chile was thumped 71-8 at home by the United States and was beaten 20-5 in Uruguay.
Jones lamented his team’s indiscipline in Sao Paulo last time out as Canada squandered a 10-0 lead. New Zealand-born fly half Josh Reeves accounted for all the Brazil scoring with six penalty kicks.
It was a vicious circle for Jones. Handling errors led to scrums which led to penalties against Canada, thanks to a powerful Brazilian set piece.
Amazingly the Brazilians won despite never crossing the Canadian 22-metre line with ball in hand. While the Canadian defence was a positive, it ultimately didn’t matter.
Canada is 5-0-0 against Chile dating back to their first meeting in 2002. The Canadians won 33-17 in Santiago in last year’s tournament.
Still, Jones is not taking the visitors lightly.
“Chile will come at us full of fire, they played very well against Uruguay themselves,” he said. “They are very well-coached, and well-organized with good structure. We are well aware it will not be an easy match for us.”
Hubert Buydens and Cole Keith come in at prop while Kyle Baillie moves from flanker to second row, where he is joined by Mile Sheppard. Blindside flanker Justin Blanchet is set to make his first start after debuting off the bench against Brazil. Dustin Dobravsky comes in at No. 8 for the injured Luke Campbell.
Jamie Mackenzie and Patrick Parfrey remain at scrum half and fly half, respectively. The impressive Theo Sauder returns from injury to fullback, moving Ciaran Hearn back to centre, where he partners with Nick Blevins. Ben LeSage is unavailable because of school commitments.
Westhills Stadium is currently under construction, limiting capacity to 1,000.