Although they have never before played in this province’s showcase sporting edifice, the Canadian players say there is a distinct feeling of home-field advantage to the Canada Sevens rugby tournament Saturday and Sunday at B.C. Place.

“Most of the national team is from the Island or Lower Mainland, so this is going to be very special for us,” said Pat Kay of Duncan, who at 22, is an emerging player to watch for Canada.

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Especially with the lower bowl sold out at 28,000 fans each day for the first World Series event ever held in this country, necessitating the release of 5,000 upper bowl tickets.

“It really feels like home. Spirits are high,” said Kay.

Not that the players, based at the Rugby Canada Centre of Excellence in Langford, don’t already spend a lot of time in the province. But that’s in training, which is done in relative obscurity at Westhills Stadium. This is different.

“There are a lot of distractions being the host team in Vancouver,” admitted Kay, a graduate of Cowichan High School.

“We have a team psychologist who helps us stay focused on the task. But we’re also enjoying it. You don’t want to miss anything because this opportunity hasn’t happened before at home in the World Series.”

It has only occurred once before in men’s sevens. That, however, was not in the World Series but in the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games. That home-province feel the Ontario players felt last year at BMO Field, the B.C. players get to experience Saturday and Sunday at B.C. Place.

But while Canada won Pan Am Games gold in Toronto, it lost to the rising U.S. in the separate North America and Caribbean qualifying tournament for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. So all roads this year for Canada lead to the last-chance Olympic qualifier for Rio from June 18-19 in Monaco, where the 12th and final berth into the 2016 Olympic Games will be decided.

“[National team head coach Liam Middleton from Bear Mountain] tells us: ‘Be the Olympian before you are the Olympian,’ ” said Kay.

“That means to do everything with an Olympian’s attitude and mindset. We can’t just show up in Monaco. We have to build to it properly with the right attitude, training and results.”

That process continues through the remaining World Series tournaments April 8-10 in Hong Kong, April 16-17 in Singapore, May 14-15 in Paris and May 20-22 in London.

The Canada Sevens, meanwhile, opens Saturday with South Africa playing Scotland at 9:30 a.m. Sevens rugby is a colourful, cacophonous and swirling sporting carnival as the 14-minute games follow each other in rapid succession. Canada is in Group B and opens Saturday at 12:04 p.m. against Wales. The Canucks meet the Rio Olympics-favoured Aussies at 3:40 p.m. followed by the closing group match against Russia at 7:28 p.m. The medal and consolation rounds begin Sunday at 9:40 a.m. through to the championship game at 6 p.m.

The Langford-based Canadian women’s team, meanwhile, is No. 2 in the world and has qualified for the Rio Olympics. It will host the Canada Sevens at Westhills Stadium on April 16-17.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com