Canada's Ben LeSage, right, scores a try in front of teammate Cooper Coats, left, and Belgium's Basile Poupaert during the second half of a men's 15s international rugby test match in Halifax on Saturday, July 2, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese
The Canadian men’s rugby team is headed to Europe in November to play Chile and Romania in Bucharest.
Canada, currently ranked 22nd in the world, will face No. 21 Chile on Nov. 9 and No. 20 Romania on Nov. 16.
Coach Kingsley Jones and Canada are currently in Tokyo, where they take on No. 16 Tonga on Saturday for fifth place in the Pacific Nations Cup.
The European trip will mark the sixth and seventh games the men have played this year. They opened with a pair of games in Ottawa in July – a 73-12 loss to No. 6 Scotland and 35-22 win over Romania – before losing Pacific Nations Cup matches to No. 14 Japan (55-28 in Vancouver) and the 19th-ranked U.S. (28-15 in Carson, Calif.).
“Knowing that we get to be back together again in November will be awesome for us to keep building and taking steps forward as a team,” vice-captain Ben Lesage said in a statement. “We have got a young group at the moment and lots of guys are being exposed to test match rugby for the first time. The more opportunities we have to play as a group will help us as we prepare for Rugby World Cup qualifications next summer.”
“November will be another chance for us to test ourselves against the teams around us in the world rankings and see how much we’ve improved after the Pacific Nations Cup,” he added.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024
