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“I would back our starting seven or eight players any time against any team,” said McGrath, who took over the Canadian team this season. “The week before in Wellington we had a very consistent starting lineup, which I regard as our strongest, and we went all the way to the closing stages.”

But with Hirayama sidelined and Kay, Justin Douglas and Adam Zaruba all ailing, Sydney was a different story.

“The loss of those four key players with no real replacements maybe highlights where we are as a program — that we’ve got some good players but there’s a big drop-off to what comes next,” McGrath said.

Photo by Jason McCawley / Getty Images

To that end, the English coach will be in Toronto this weekend to scout talent at an Ontario under-18 camp. Finding depth will take time, he acknowledges.

Hirayama, Canada’s influential playmaker, suffered a hamstring injury in the dying minutes at Wellington and had to sit out in Sydney. Kay and Zaruba were hurt in the first game there.

“In the normal course of events I would have withdrawn them from the competition,” McGrath said. “But with no real like-for-like replacements, I tried to squeeze a little bit more out of them and ultimately it was too much for them.”

Amazingly Douglas tied for second in tournament scoring with five tries despite fighting a bug in the sapping heat and humidity Down Under.

“Fair play to him. He climbed off his sick bed and tried to take part but he was nothing like the force he usually is,” said McGrath.

“Standing still on the sideline was hard work. You were sweating and feeling drained,” he added. “To run out there, even when you’re fit, was even harder. But to try and do it when you’ve been sick and your stomach wasn’t feeling great, I can’t say enough good things about him.”