Whatever they are doing on the rugby pitch at Shawnigan Lake School, it’s working. The Stags, who have won eight B.C. high school championships in the past nine years, have landed two players in the starting lineup for Canada for tonight’s much-anticipated game against the New Zealand Maori All Blacks.
Shawnigan Lake alumni Dustin Dobravsky and Guiseppe du Toit will start at flanker and inside centre, respectively, for Canada. Du Toit, of the University of Victoria Vikes, earned his first cap this year against Chile at Westhills Stadium. Dobravsky, who plays for the Castaway Wanderers of Oak Bay, will make his Canada debut.
There is something absolutely compelling and magical about Kiwi rugby. The lower bowl of B.C. Place is sold out, with a record Canadian rugby crowd for fifteens approaching 30,000 expected for the game (7 p.m. on TSN).
Canadian captain and starting scrum-half Phil Mack of Victoria pointed to his rugby sevens career, in which the lower bowl of B.C. Place was also sold out for the Canada Sevens, to describe how pulsating the atmosphere will be tonight.
“This is a huge fixture for us at home,” he said by phone in Vancouver.
“I got a taste in sevens of what it’s going to be like with the [lower bowl] full and everybody cheering loudly for Canada,” added Mack, a graduate of Oak Bay High School and the UVic Vikes.
The Langford-based Canadian team, however, will be missing its overseas pro players because tonight’s game falls outside the official November Test window. Those unavailable due to injury or other commitments include Connor Braid of Victoria and Matt Evans of Duncan.
The pros will join world No. 24 Canada for its Test matches Nov. 11 against No. 12 Georgia in Tbilisi, Nov. 18 versus No. 19 Spain in Madrid and Nov. 25 against No. 9 Fiji in Narbonne, France.
It is all in preparation for the Americas repechage, total-point Canada-Uruguay set Jan. 27 at B.C. Place and Feb. 3 in Montevideo, with the winner advancing to the 2019 World Cup in Japan. It is the first time that Canada, loser to the U.S. Eagles over the summer, has failed to advance to the World Cup directly out of the North American qualifier.
Losing to No. 18 Uruguay is unthinkable for Canadian rugby, which has already slipped precipitously since 2011 from No. 12 in the world.
Newly minted Canadian head coach Kingsley Jones from Wales, based at the Rugby Canada Centre of Excellence in Langford, was brought in to halt the slide.
“We’ve had a great week of training with Kingsley and we’re excited to get our November series underway to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay in the New Year,” Mack said.
With a running push from some former Stags of Shawnigan Lake.
