Canada's wallet, World Cup future on line in rugby qualifier against Uruguay

The stakes are high on and off the field Saturday as Canada takes on Uruguay in the opening leg of a crucial Rugby World Cup qualifier.

Failure to make the sport's showcase tournament means less money from the governing body of world rugby. According to Rugby Canada's 2016 annual report, World Rugby provided $2.1 million of its $15.1 million revenue in 2016 (an Olympic year) — its second largest contributor after Sport Canada's $2.97 million.

In 2015, World Rugby was the biggest contributor at $3.7 million, ahead of Sport Canada, in Rugby Canada's $16.2 million worth of revenue.

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"This isn't just an important match on the field for moving up in the rankings, it's an important match for the organization as whole," said Rugby Canada board chairman Tim Powers.

"We don't want to put too much pressure on the players but I think anybody in the sphere of Rugby Canada and the Canadian rugby community knows it's not just what's at stake on the field this week but in some ways it's operations of the organization, depending on how we do.

"Because the funding structure still in most major rugby nations is geared toward how the men's 15s team performs. That may be a bit antiquated but that's a battle for another day."

Powers said Rugby Canada's current budget is in the range of $17 million to $20 million with some 13 to 15 per cent coming from World Rugby.

The 21st-ranked Canadian men have never missed a World Cup, qualifying on the first try in each of the previous eight tournaments. But they stumbled at the first obstacle this time out, losing 80-44 last summer to the 17th-ranked U.S. in a two-game total-points series.

Squandered opportunities

In the first leg, Canada squandered a first-half lead but reeled off 10 late points to tie the U.S. 28-28 in Hamilton. The rematch in San Diego was all U.S.A. as the physical Eagles won by a convincing 52-16 margin.

That set up the second-chance series with No. 18 Uruguay. Game 1 goes Saturday at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver while Game 2 is Feb. 3 in Montevideo.

The winner slots into Group D at the 2019 World Cup in Japan, alongside No. 4 Australia, No. 7 Wales, No. 10 Fiji and No. 12 Georgia.

The loser has one final shot to make the field via a four-team repechage round-robin tournament later this year.

"Nobody at Rugby Canada wants to go to that repechage route," said Powers. "That's not to say we don't have tremendous respect for Uruguay but we're putting everything we can into making sure we win now."

Powers said Rugby Canada chose B.C. Place over its home base in Langford, B.C., to take advantage of a "more predictable weather environment" — read roof — that will allow its top pros to flourish.

"For us it's crucial that we win now, although we will deal with the circumstances if we don't."

To that end, Rugby Canada took the team to London to scrimmage with Harlequins and Oxford ahead of the Uruguay series.

"All of that has been part and parcel of the investment made to give our team the best shot and we know our players are fully into this," said Powers.

Potentially costly miss

Winning now means the team can start planning for the World Cup. It would also mean an immediate injection of $448,000 in World Cup preparation money from World Rugby.

It's money that will be lost if Canada fails to qualify. And the World Rugby cheque will be cut further as the world governing body reviews other funding formula.

The drop in funding due to a World Cup miss would be significant, according to Powers — "potentially, depending on how you calculate it, in the millions of dollars." Canada's loss would be another team's gain as World Rugby shuffles its budget to reward the team that qualifies at its expense.

While Canada has been able to assemble all its healthy overseas pros, it will still be without the injured Matt Evans, Conor Trainor, Kyle Baillie, Shane O'Leary, Andrew Coe and Ciaran Hearn on the weekend.

Organizers said 13,000 tickets had been sold as of Thursday with the hope that number will rise to 15,000 game day.