Canada is hoping something familiar and something new is just the right recipe to keep the national team on the pitch past Saturday for World Cup 2023 in France.
National team neophyte Quinn Ngawati of Victoria slots into the lineup Saturday, as do veterans Tyler Ardron and Pat Parfrey, for one of the biggest games in Canadian rugby history, if not the biggest.
Former captain Ardron, a Castres Olympique pro in France with 37 caps for Canada, was away due to club commitments but has returned and will start in the back row. Parfrey, with 30 caps, draws in as starting fullback. Six-foot-four, 220-pound centre Ngawati, the former St. Michaels University School Blue Jags captain who earned his first cap over the summer against Wales, will dress in reserve and begin the game on the bench. The strapping but fast Islander plays for United New York in Major League Rugby. Canada will again be captained by Lucas Rumball of the Toronto Arrows of MLR.
There is all to play for after world No. 21 Canada won the first game of the two-game, total-point second-round qualifier against Chile 22-21 last Saturday night at a packed Starlight Stadium in Langford ahead of the second fixture at Estadio Elías Figueroa Brander in Valparaiso, Chile.
Canada, which lost to the U.S. last month in the first round, must win Saturday to assure passage to the next round of qualifying against either the U.S. or Uruguay in July to see who gets the Americas 2 slot into Pool D of the 2023 World Cup with No. 4 England, No. 8 Argentina, No. 10 Japan and No. 13 Samoa.
If Canada loses against Chile, it will be eliminated and fail to qualify for the World Cup for the first time after playing in all nine previous editions. Chile has never qualified for the World Cup.
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
“We have to take a hard look in the mirror and have to execute under pressure,” said Canadian captain Rumball.
Canada’s task is compounded by being on the road in South America for the deciding game. The Canadian team departed Victoria on Tuesday for the trip down and had to spend one day in quarantine in their hotel in the port city of Valparaiso with all players needing to return a negative COVID test.
