Canada looks to down Brazil for first win in Americas Rugby Championship

LANGFORD, B.C. — Doug Fraser will win his first cap and fellow debutante Cam Polson could join him off the bench Saturday when Canada hosts Brazil in Americas Rugby Championship play at Westhills Stadium.

Canada, currently ranked 21st in the world, stands fifth in the six-team tournament standings after losses of 29-10 to the 17th-ranked U.S. and 38-29 to No. 18 Uruguay in a match that doubled as a World Cup qualifier.

No. 25 Brazil defeated No. 26 Chile 16-14 and lost 27-18 to Uruguay.

Canada and Brazil have split their only two meetings with Canada winning 52-25 at home in 2016 and losing 24-23 in Brazil in 2017.

“It’s a difficult challenge,” said Canada coach Kingsley Jones. “We’ve got to respect Brazil but we’re the favourites playing at home and we’ve got to respond well to that. There’s been improvement in the last two test matches but we weren’t good enough to beat U.S.A. We’ve got to stay in the moment, make less unforced errors and work hard on improving every day.”

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The Canadians wrap up the tournament with away games against an Argentina XV and Chile.

Canada is 2-11-1 since the start of 2017.

Fraser comes in for Guiseppe du Toit dropping to the bench while Dustin Dobravsky and Cole Davis make their first starts.

Hooker Ray Barkwill earns his 49th cap and centre Nick Blevins his 48th. Winger DTH van der Merwe hit the 50-cap milestone against the U.S. 

Canada Roster

Djustice Sears-Duru, Ray Barkwill, Jake Ilnicki, Josh Larsen, Kyle Baillie, Dustin Dobravsky, Lucas Rumball, Luke Campbell, Phil Mack (capt.), Shane O’Leary, DTH van der Merwe, Nick Blevins, Doug Fraser, Cole Davis, Patrick Parfrey.

Replacements

Martial Lagain, Anthony Luca, Ryan Kotlewski, Conor Keys, Cameron Polson, Andrew Ferguson, Guiseppe Du Toit.

The Canadian Press