The Canada and Uruguay rugby captains were asked if they wanted smiling faces or serious faces for their pre-game media photo shoot.
Both opted for serious.
In international sport, friendlies are friendlies in name only.
With the 2015 World Cup fading in the rear view mirror and the analysis done, the long process toward building to the 2019 World Cup in Japan begins its preliminary phase today when world No. 19 Canada hosts No. 20 Uruguay at 4 p.m. at Westhills Stadium in Langford.
Canada will be dressing 12 uncapped rookies, six as starters, as it looks to piece together its long list for the next 31Ú2 years.
That puts a great deal of leadership pressure on 2011 and 2015 World Cup veteran and Canadian captain Hubert Buydens of the Castaway Wanderers.
“It’s an exciting time for the guys who will earn their first caps,” said the 34-year-old, six-foot-three, 260-pound prop.
Buydens leads this emerging young corps more by example than any rah-rah type stuff.
“As a veteran, I’m just going to play my game the best way I can,” he said.
Buydens has been around and knows what to expect.
“Uruguay brings standard style South American rugby . . . scrum, maul, hit hard, tackle low,” he said.
That makes it a good thing that Canada’s veteran talent today will be concentrated in the front row with World Cup veterans and Castaway Wanderers forwards Buydens, Ray Barkwill and Jake Ilnicki.
“If we front up in the forwards, we should be all right against a team like Uruguay,” said Buydens, a former offensive lineman in CIS football, who played in two Vanier Cups for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, and was selected in the 2008 CFL draft by the B.C. Lions.
Buydens noted casual observers not familiar with the nuances of rugby don’t understand the true possession value of the front line players advancing the ball a few metres at a time. But he said Canada is diversifying its rugby approach and now uses several different platforms to build its attack.
“We bring good quality in the back line,” he said.
Uruguay’s captain is Juan Manuel Gaminara. He noted that World Rugby, which the re-labeled IRB is now known as, wants to give the so-called second-tier nations more test matches to help build up their programs. The Americas Championship fits the bill for Los Teros, as the Uruguay national side is known.
“Canada likes to be more dynamic now in its rugby,” said Gaminara, a flanker from the Montevideo club Old Boys.
“Argentina is similar to Canada and is very dynamic while the USA has tough forwards. This tournament is exactly what we need to get more competition because it gives us a diverse group of countries to play against. It is very useful as we look to [stay] top-20 in the world.”
Gaminara said coming from summer to winter isn’t a factor for Uruguay because its athletes do it all the time in every sport since the international sporting calendar is geared to the Northern Hemisphere.
“Plus, we’re used to this climate . . . winter in Uruguay is similar to this [Victoria] weather,” he said. “There’s not much change for us.”
Canada is 7-1 all-time against Uruguay.
Canada continues the Americas Championship against world No. 42 Brazil on Feb. 20 at Westhills Stadium. The away tests for Canada in the Americas tournament are in Houston against the world No. 16 U.S. Eagles next Saturday, at No. 5 Argentina on Feb. 28 and at No. 24 Chile on March 6. Tickets for both the Uruguay and Brazil games at Westhills are on sale at events.rugbycanada.ca.
