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For the Canadians, this is pretty much the weakest level of opposition they could have hoped for after they fell to Uruguay at the beginning of the year. At the time, it looked like Spain were going to be the European team that would face Samoa (the Samoans were favourites in that match up too). Hong Kong always seemed a sure bet, while Kenya seemed the likely second place finisher in the the African competition, though that wasn’t a certainty.

And at that point, we probably figured the Canadians would be the favourites, based on history.

But then again, this is a squad that has struggled to win and has found themselves sinking down the World Rugby rankings. After ugly losses to Russia and the USA this summer, now their situation seems ever-more precarious.

And that’s without even considering the opposition they’ll have to over come in November’s round-robin tournament. On reputation and comparable opposition, you’d think Canada are the favourites, but nothing seems certain anymore.

To prepare for the biggest test of Canadian men’s rugby’s history, coach Kingsley Jones took his domestic players on tour to France over the past two weeks. They played games against Castres and Clermont, two giants of France’s Top 14 pro league. The Canadians didn’t win either game and there was much to see on display that will worry, but at the end of the day, these players haven’t seen enough of the top-end game in recent years and at least they got some of that.

In the long run, “bigger and faster” should be the lesson. In the short run, it’s a game where the players got to work on things with no pressure on them to get a result.

The domestic players will next get a run out in October in Uruguay at the Pacific Challenge tournament. Then it will be up to Jones to select the best of those and the dozen or so players playing professionally to make the trip to Marseille.

Easy, right?

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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