It’s the unwritten rule of international sport.
When World Cup veterans speak, national team rookies listen.
Newcomers and returnees went through their final paces Tuesday at St. Michaels University School before the Canadian team departs its several Island training bases for seven spring/summer Test matches against Fiji, Tonga, Japan, Ireland, and the U.S. three times, starting Saturday in Edmonton against the Americans.
“The vets let us know it if we mess up. But they are also there with supportive words if we do something good,” said freshman national team centre Mike Fuailefau of Victoria.
Fuailefau, who plays for the Castaway Wanderers of Oak Bay, and Jordan Wilson-Ross, who won the Rounsefell Cup two weeks ago with James Bay Athletic Association, have parlayed strong B.C. Premier League club seasons into national team invites.
Both are former Canada Under-20 players looking for their first senior XV caps this spring/summer.
“You really notice the size and physicality differences between junior and senior,” said the 21-year-old Fuailefau, who has senior caps with Canada in the new Olympic sport of sevens rugby.
“And the game sense these veteran players display is so much greater.”
Wilson-Ross is a wide-bodied battering-ram of a wing who has traded his JBAA club blue for the national team red of Canada.
“I’m hoping to get my first cap this summer,” he said.
“It’s good to be here and it’s a good experience. But this is only training camp. It’s only the first step.”
For 30-year-old Aaron Carpenter, it’s one of the final steps of a career that has seen him play in the 2007 and 2011 World Cups for Canada and pro in England while also winning a Rounsefell Cup in the past with JBAA.
His goal is to finish off in 2015 with a career hat-trick of World Cup appearances.
The 47-time capped veteran’s advice to the younger Canadian players: “Keep believing in the dream. It’s there.”
The key portion of this Test summer involves the back-to-back 2015 World Cup qualifying games against the U.S. Aug. 17 in Charleston, South Carolina, and Aug. 24 at BMO Field in Toronto.
“We proved at the last World Cup [going 1-2-1 in 2011 at New Zealand] that Canada doesn’t want to just stay in games but wants to win games,” said Carpenter.
“A lot of people took notice. I believe that in a Test like this summer’s against Ireland [June 15 at BMO Field], we’ve got a shot at them.”
Tuesday’s session ended with the national team players offering tips to SMUS players during a no-tackle scrimmage.
Afterward, Rugby Canada presented a picture to hang in the SMUS hallways of SMUS-grad Ed Fairhurst in action against the New Zealand All Blacks in the 2011 World Cup. SMUS grad Fuailefau accepted the gift on behalf of his alma mater.
The message to the current SMUS players was simple.
“He [Fairhurst] was you 15 years ago,” said SMUS grad and four-time World Cup player Gareth Rees, now manager of national team programs for Rugby Canada.
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