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Coming off a long, hard season on the World Rugby Sevens Series, you could see the precision that being a professional squad brings. Their mistakes were few with ball in hand, their passes nearly always crisp, their physical strength was obvious in nearly every tackle and even off their own kickoffs and the Canadians won back possession time and again.

Their attacking dominance was so great they scored 293 points over the two days of the tournament. The 40 points they scored against Jamaica was their lowest in-game total the whole weekend.

In the final, the Canadians got tries from Pat Kay, Andrew Coe, Harry Jones, Nathan Hirayama and a pair from Isaac Kaay. Hirayama converted five of the six tries. Jamaica’s lone try was scored by Mikel Facey

After the final, an elated Jones paid tribute to his teammates, healthy and injured, plus their supporters back home and both current and former staff.

“A lot of us have been grinding for a long, long time,” he said, having to pause as he was embraced by Kay mid-sentence. “There’s a lot of boys back who would love to be here too, about five or six boys who are injured and couldn’t be here; hey, they were on the field with us. Fans, supporters, staff, before and now, love you all. Such a great feeling.”

While they’ve meshed well in their two months under interim head coach Henry Paul, you knew in that “before and now” statement Jones was also thinking of popular former head coach Damian McGrath, who was let go two months ago by Rugby Canada management.

Jamaica does get some consolation as they have qualified for the 12-team global repechage tournament next year, with the winner of the event receiving the final spot at the Tokyo Olympics. Mexico, who finished in third place this weekend, also qualified for the event.

The Jamaican and Mexican women are also off to next year’s repechage tournament, after finishing first and second in the women’s tournament.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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