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The length of the current season, the season that is about to end for the Canadian men’s rugby sevens team, is staggering.

It’s been 54 weeks since the Canadians began pre-season, head coach Damian McGrath figures.

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There have been 10 tournaments on the World Rugby Sevens Series. There was a pre-season tournament in San Jose (remember that?). There was the Commonwealth Games in April, splitting up the year.

And now there’s next week’s big showcase event in San Francisco, the Rugby World Cup Sevens.

“Definitely feeling the effects of a long year, but the boys are still enjoying it,” insists captain Harry Jones. “We’ve had a couple solid weeks of training.”

“The boys are fired up for one last push in San Fran.”

McGrath managed to get through the year while leaning heavily on 14 core players. He used just 19 in all, as budget cuts imposed by a million-dollar government funding slash meant he couldn’t retain as many depth players as he would have liked.

But at the end of it all, McGrath says the dozen men he’s taking to San Francisco are just about the best he’s got.