They rode home field advantage to a dramatic repeat gold medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.

Now, Canada’s men’s rugby sevens squad will hope a raucous home crowd at BC Place next weekend for the sixth stop of the HSBC World Sevens Series can help get them get back on track for last-chance qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Vancouver is on the 10-stop World Series tour for the first time. When the 16-country event was confirmed for BC Place a year ago, the Canadian men’s team was riding high. They had finished a career-best sixth in the 2013-2014 Series, a result that included a best ever third-place finish at Las Vegas. They then finished ninth in the 2014-2015 campaign.

But it’s been tough sledding for Canada in 2015-2016. They entered this past weekend’s event in Las Vegas in 12th place in the season standings and lost Sunday afternoon’s Shield final to Samoa 24-12 to finish a season-worst 14th.

“It’s super disappointing,” Nathan Hirayama of Vancouver, one of several B.C. born players on the Canadian squad, said from Las Vegas. “We did a lot of work over the last three or four weeks, preparing on and off the field and it’s always disappointing when you feel you underachieved.”

Canada went 0-2-1 in pool play, losing 33-7 to South Africa, drawing with the U.S. 26-26 and falling 17-10 to Wales.

The Canadians then lost their Bowl quarter-final 19-10 to Russia before bouncing back on Sunday morning with a 24-7 win over injury-decimated England. But they couldn’t sustain the momentum four hours later against Samoa, even after scoring the opening try 15 seconds into the match.

Canada’s big problem in Las Vegas was falling behind early, a tough thing to do in a 14-minute game. They trailed the U.S. 19-7 at the half and 26-7 with four minutes to play before staging a furious rally. They were also down 17-0 to Wales and 19-5 soon after halftime to Russia.

“We haven’t been starting very well this season and it’s something we’ve got to look at,” said Hiryama. “It’s hard when you’re having to chase games. The snowball effect of errors ... we’re not making life easy on ourselves.”

Hiryama said the squad is looking forward to playing in front of a huge, supportive home crowd this weekend.

“It will definitely make a difference. We’re all so stoked to play in front of lots of friends and family. It’s going to be a special occasion for us and we want to make the most of it.”

Meantime, the BC Place event continues to be a hot ticket.

On Friday, organizers announced that 5,000 more tickets would be made available, a week after saying that they had achieved a lower bowl sellout — 28,000 for each of the two days.

“We have been hearing loud and clear that ticket demand has exceeded ticket supply,” Bill Cooper, Canada Sevens CEO, said in a statement.

“We want to make sure that everyone who wants to experience this inaugural event has the opportunity to do so and enjoys a fan experience that delivers the kind of infectious excitement that sevens rugby has become known for.”