Go Canada!

I have written precious little of late about rugby!

In part this is because my team – Bath – are having one of those seasons in which they simply cannot get anything right. They are – miraculously – still mid-table in the Premiership, but looking at their losses to some of the perhaps less well equipped clubs in the league it is a considerable mystery that they are not doing even worse than they are.

Scotland are also keeping us all on tenterhooks. At a time when the Irish have finally beaten the All Blacks at home for the first time, when Wales have scraped wins over the Aussies and the Saffers and the English are finally starting to rediscover their swagger – Scotland remain worryingly tentative. Their game is certainly in a considerably better place than it was a few years back, but the Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019 is rapidly bearing down on us and there is still a great deal to be done if the Scots are to be in a position to compete.

There is at last – however – good news in one quarter at least. Canada have themselves finally qualified for the 2019 World Cup (in which they now will compete for the ninth time in a row). Like the Scots the Canadians seemed determined to do everything the hard way. They eschewed both of the more conventional routes to qualification, ending up in the last chance saloon – a three week/four way repêchage competition in Marseilles facing Hong Kong, Germany(!) and Kenya – all of whom they had to beat to be sure of a place.

That Canada came through at the last gasp and finally booked their passage to Japan is indeed almost Scots-like in terms of gritty determination in the face of seemingly insuperable odds and they are to be hugely congratulated.

Well done! Go Canada!