The Royal-tinged draw was made Monday as Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco pulled out the slips containing sa国际传媒, Germany, Sri Lanka and Uruguay to comprise Pool B of the last-chance Olympic qualifier for the 2016 Summer Games. The last-chance tournament will take place June 18-19 at Stade Louis II in Monte Carlo.
sa国际传媒 and Uruguay should be favoured in Group B to advance to the quarter-finals.
The 16-team tournament will decide the 12th and final berth into the Rio Olympics. It is expected to come down to world ninth-ranked Samoa, 13th-ranked sa国际传媒 and 14th-ranked Russia.
Samoa was drawn into Pool A with South Pacific-neighbour Tonga, along with Ireland and Zimbabwe. Russia heads Pool C, which also includes Morocco, Tunisia and Chile. In Pool D are Hong Kong, Mexico, Spain and South Korea.
It will be an especially compelling tournament for Canadian veteran Phil Mack of Victoria, the 30-year-old former all-world team selection and graduate of the Oak Bay High Barbs and UVic Vikes, who has indicated he will retire at the end of this year.
鈥淗opefully, I can end it off at the Olympics. That鈥檚 the dream,鈥� said Mack recently.
The rising U.S. beat sa国际传媒 last year in the North American and Caribbean regional qualifier for Rio. Joining the U.S. and host Brazil as having qualified for the 2016 Olympics are New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Great Britain, France, Kenya, Japan, Argentina and Fiji.
sa国际传媒 completed its final game tune-ups for the Monaco qualifier on Sunday at the London Sevens, with a 19-7 victory over Brazil in the consolation Bowl quarter-finals before a 21-17 loss to Wales in the Bowl semifinals. sa国际传媒 went 2-2-1 in London, with Mack returning to the lineup for the first time since being sidelined by a leg injury during the sa国际传媒 Sevens in March at sa国际传媒 Place.
sa国际传媒 returns today for a three-week training camp at Westhills Stadium in Langford before departing for Monaco.
The last chance women鈥檚 Olympic qualifier takes place June 25-26 in Dublin, Ireland, but sa国际传媒 doesn鈥檛 need to be part of it. The Langford-based Canadian women鈥檚 team qualified for the 2016 Olympics based on its No. 2 world ranking last year. The current world No. 4 is expected to challenge for the podium in Rio.
Bernard Lapasset of France, the chairman of World Rugby, was at the Olympic last-chance men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 draws in Monaco and described this as 鈥渁 game-changing year for our sport.鈥�
