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Canada’s first-ever tournament win last month in Singapore has them playing an unfamiliar role this week in Paris: they’re the guys with the targets on their back.

“I”m looking to see how we deal with it,” Canadian coach Damian McGrath says of being on the summit.

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He’s realistic: other than South Africa, no team has gone back-to-back as tournament winner this season on the HSBC World Sevens Series.

So in many ways, there’s no pressure at all. The only pressure, McGrath likes to think, is what they place on themselves.

In Singapore, the Canadians played to their strengths and found ultimate success. The loss to Fiji at the end of pool play was a good lesson, one which players and coach noted in the final’s aftermath.

“One of the things we’ve done well is stuck our plan,” McGrath said. “(Against Fiji) we got loose and paid the price.

“Nate (Hirayama) said later that night ‘it’s a wakeup call.’ That gave us a steely determination to get the job done game by game on the Sunday.”