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You usually don鈥檛 have to worry about minnows in the big pond of the Olympics. But it鈥檚 another matter entirely if it is their pond.
The Langford-based Canadian team, ranked No. 3 in the world, has drawn host Brazil in its opening women鈥檚 rugby sevens Group C for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, along with No. 4 Great Britain and No. 11 Japan.
Brazil is lightly regarded in rugby and is in the Olympic tournament only because it is hosting. But host teams tend to get jacked up and sometimes play out of their heads.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really dangerous playing the home side,鈥� said Canadian head coach John Tait of Victoria, after running his national team through its paces Tuesday at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence on the Camosun College Interurban campus.
鈥淏ut we will exert pressure on them early and turn home field around on them.鈥�
Overall, Tait was satisfied with the draw unveiled Tuesday.
鈥淭his is a good pool for us that offers a different mix of styles.鈥�
sa国际传媒鈥檚 key group game will be against Great Britain.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had good back-and- forth games with them,鈥� Tait said.
Pool A consists of top-ranked Australia, the U.S., Fiji and Colombia. Pool B has second-ranked New Zealand with France, Spain and Kenya. The top two teams from each pool, along with the two best third-place teams, will advance to the quarter-finals.
鈥淲e should top our group and set ourselves up for a good quarter-final match-up,鈥� Tait said.
The finalized Canadian Olympic roster will be unveiled on July 15 at the appropriately named Olympic View golf course in Victoria.
The team will continue training at Westhills Stadium in Langford and at PISE.
Since the Olympic tournament in Rio will be played on grass, practices will switch later in the summer to the natural-grass surfaces of Wallace Field at UVic and at Shawnigan Lake School.
The national squad leaves the Island on July 23 for the general Canadian Olympic staging camp in Toronto before departing for Rio.
The women鈥檚 rugby tournament, beginning the day after the Games opening ceremonies, runs Aug. 6-8.
The men鈥檚 Olympic draw, for the matches Aug. 9-11, was also announced Tuesday. The Langford-based Canadian men鈥檚 team, however, failed to qualify for Rio.
Rugby Sevens is making its Olympic debut at the Rio Games. Rugby, the XVs version, last appeared in the Olympics in 1924 at Paris.
