Next stop, Westhills Stadium. And not a moment too soon. The Langford-based Canadian men’s rugby team kept moving north, but also leaving a trail of Test defeats in its wake.

The latest came Saturday in Sacramento, California, with a 29-10 loss to the U.S Eagles in the second round of the Americas Rugby Championship. The first round was a 32-31 loss the weekend before in Montevideo, Uruguay, a game which also stood as a qualifier for the 2019 World Cup as Uruguay booked its ticket to Japan, while Canada was sent to the final-chance, world qualifier in November.

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Canada returns home for the third game of the Americas Championship next Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Westhills against Brazil.

In a sign of the changing nature of rugby in the Americas, which seems to have left the Canadians behind, world No. 21 Canada is 8-4 all-time against No. 18 Uruguay, but has lost its last three games to the South Americans. Canada is 38-18-2 all-time against the No. 17 U.S., but Canada has not beaten the Eagles since 2013 and is 0-7-1 in its last eight games against the Americans.

Canada closes out the Americas Championship on Feb. 24 against host Argentina XV in Jujuy and March 3 against host and No. 26 Chile in Santiago.

Canadian coach Kingsley Jones has targeted the No. 25 Brazilians for a much-needed bounce back in Langford: “We need a good performance against Brazil. We’re not underdogs next weekend. We need to make sure we win.”

Veteran scrum-half Phil Mack of Victoria captained Canada on Saturday in Sacramento. “Our captain puts everything into everything,” said Jones.

The U.S., which beat Canada last summer in the direct North American qualifier for the 2019 World Cup, ran across three tries.

“We made silly, soft mistakes, and there were some daft ones we gave away. That changes momentum,” said Jones.

There were a pair of bookend moments for players from Victoria’s James Bay Athletic Association. Veteran backfield great DTH van der Merwe played his 50th Test match, but was not able to add to his all-time leading Canada try total of 31. Oak Bay High graduate Luke Campbell, son of 1984 Olympic silver-medallist rower Marilyn Campbell, made his Test debut by starting at No. 8.

“[Campbell] played exceptionally well,” said Jones. “It was a big game for him and he handled that well.”

Former Castaway Wanderer stalwarts Jake Ilnicki, a University of Victoria Vikes grad, and Ray Barkwill started on the front line and UVic Vikes player Guiseppe du Toit, out of Shawnigan Lake School, at outside-centre. Dustin Dobravsky of CW, out of Shawnigan Lake, came into the game off the bench. Also dressed were Robbie Povey of CW, Cole Keith of JBAA and Conor Keys of the UVic Vikes.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com