By BRIAN LOWE
CANADA’s national rugby league team has retooled following their upset loss to Jamaica late last month.
Canada hosts a Fiji Bati residents side in Vancouver this Saturday. The match is a precursor to the finale of the Americas Championship the following week in Toronto.
The Wolverines must beat the United States in Toronto to have any chance of factoring into calculations for clinching the Americas Championship series, but before that they need to navigate the Fijian obstacle.
Canadian head coach Ben Fleming says a failure to adapt to change was one of the main reasons for their defeat by Jamaica.
“We’re wiser for the experience, but it won’t change our beliefs at what we’ve started to do here in Canada,” he said.
“Regardless of the refereeing and being decimated through injury, I still thought we could have won with our individual experience but it’s a team effort and we just didn’t have that team awareness and belief, especially in times of adversity.”
The coach says it has been difficult to drill down to where things went wrong against the Jamaicans because they haven’t had access to video of the game.
“We had a player leadership meeting the day after the match and dissected what we need to address. That has been filtered down to each province and will be addressed when the team comes together on Thursday.”
There are seven changes to the roster for the Fijian matchup resulting from injuries, availability and performance.
The Canadians are on a five-game skid. It started in August 2016 when they were defeated by an England Lionhearts team in Toronto, while later on the same day, their split squad lost to Fiji in Honolulu.
“I think losing any international game is a concern,” continued coach Fleming.
“It’s ultimately a results driven business, not to mention it helps when trying to sell our product and brand, however, I wasn’t at the helm for the previous four games so I can’t really comment on that.
“I’m not sure what was done in previous years, but through evaluation and discussion I believe we’ve turned a corner here and doing something special. Hopefully the work we’ve put in behind the scenes will translate to winning and success on the field.”
Photo: Davey Wilson
