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Heard Blevins broke his jaw. May not agree with his selection but he did give it his all as did all the boys who played — Scott Strapp (@ScottStrapp) September 27, 2019

He’s currently signed with the Toronto Arrows but before that was a star for the University of B.C., where the coaches played him most often at fly-half, looking to capitalize on his nifty footwork and vision.

He’s also a half-decent goal kicker, but punting from ball in hand is probably his weakest skill.

Du Toit was originally in the Canada frame as a fly-half, the position he mostly played while at Shawnigan Lake School, but has become a centre in his senior career. The combined loss of Blevins and LeSage means that eyes now turn to Conor Trainor, who has played at outside centre many times in the past for Canada, as well as Ciaran Hearn, who has started at every position in the back line for Canada but has mostly been an inside centre for Jones.

Du Toit is now the only other specialist centre in the squad, though DTH van der Merwe has played at outside centre in the past and Pat Parfrey has played in the centres as well.

Canada coach Kingsley Jones said in a message from the team’s base in Japan that adding Sauder would indeed make Parfrey an option at centre.

It will be interesting to see how both players will be incorporated into the squad. Canada faces New Zealand on Wednesday, a match in which Jones has said he expects to start his best XV possible. Parfrey started at fullback against Italy and in the previous match against the USA and has been playing the best rugby of his career.

In the following match, against South Africa, Jones has said he’s likely to look to the depth players in his squad, because the focus at that point is ensuring as healthy a first XV as possible is available to face Namibia in the tournament-closing match for Canada.

Flanker Lucas Rumball, who suffered a hand injury in the Italy match, “should be fine,” team media manager Gareth Rees said.

Jones added that both Kyle Baillie and Evan Olmstead are progressing in their recoveries and that Olmstead had a chance of being an option to play against New Zealand.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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