All eyes are on Japan 2019. For the rugby community it does not get any bigger. In under eight months from now the tournament will be into full-swing. Competing in rugby’s showpiece tournament will be twenty countries, in four pools of five. So challenging is the event that only eight will play beyond the pool stage.

In the third of a series of four articles Americas Rugby News (ARN) looks at the Road to RWC 2019. The Americas will be represented by Argentina, Canada, Uruguay, and the USA. In today’s installment ARN looks to the far north.

At present Canada has eight matches confirmed between now and RWC 2019. These matches form a part of the Americas Rugby Championship (ARC) and Pacific Nations Cup (PNC) tournaments. For Canada they will involve a lot of travel with two of the games to be in Canada and six away.

First up will be a trip to Uruguay. The ARC opener sees a re-match from the RWC 2019 Americas 2 qualifiers. Uruguay won the series 2-0 a year ago, with the second match being a classic. The teams will again meet in Montevideo and from there Canada will play away to Brazil.

Rounds three and four of the ARC are to be home games for Canada. Both matches will take place in Langford, British Columbia and will be against further South American opposition. Chile and the Argentina XV are to play in Langford over successive weekends.

Canada’s ARC campaign will conclude south of the border. The final round match will be against the USA in the first of two presently confirmed matches between the teams. The second will be a part of the PNC and take place in the USA on July 27.

For rounds two and three of the PNC Canada is to play in Fiji. Tests will take place in the cities of Suva and Lautoka against Fiji and Tonga respectively. They are ideal matches for Canada to prepare for what awaits them in Japan 2019.

Of note is that the PNC falls outside of the World Rugby international player release window. As such Canada, and others, are to be without many names who play their rugby in Europe.

The release window is to fall between the period of August 16 and September 07. Canada presently does not have fixtures confirmed but this is highly likely to change. At least one match is expected to be added, to give Canada additional home games during the best months of the year for test rugby in the country.

DATE FIXTURE VENUE February 02 Uruguay vs Canada Montevideo February 09 Brazil vs Canada TBA February 22 Canada vs Chile Langford March 01 Canada vs Argentina XV Langford March 08 USA vs Canada Seattle July 27 USA vs Canada TBA August 03 Fiji vs Canada Suva August 09 Tonga vs Canada Lautoka

In Japan 2019 Canada will play in Pool B. The group is a nice prize for the final qualifier as it has clear targetable matches unlike other pools with four grueling matches. The pool consists of Canada, Italy, Namibia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

It is arguably Canada’s most favorable pool since RWC 2003, the first tournament utilizing four pools of five competitors. On that occasion Canada was up against Italy, New Zealand, Tonga and Wales.

It remains to be seen how Canada will approach the pool matches though impressions with under eight months before the event are that Italy and Namibia will take priority. If so then Canada’s strongest line-up would be used for these matches with the wider roster facing the might of New Zealand, and South Africa.