Canadian loose forward Tyler Ardron is desperate for his country to preserve their ever-present record at the Rugby World Cup so they can put the disappointment of England 2015 behind them and set the record straight in Japan.

Ardron was named captain for the last tournament – Canada's eighth appearance in a row – but his involvement was limited due to a knee injury. The Canucks lost all four of their Pool D matches in England, including a harrowing 17-15 defeat to Romania when they conceded 17 points in the final 28 minutes, and have since slipped outside of the top 20 in the World Rugby Rankings for the first time following a disappointing Americas Rugby Championship campaign.

The news that one of their own has earned a move to the Chiefs, becoming the first Canadian to sign a full-time Super Rugby contract with a New Zealand team, is a welcome fillip to a proud rugby-playing nation going through a difficult time in 15s. But the best tonic of them all would be victory over the USA in a home and away play-off, on 24 June and 1 July, to decide which team confirms their place at RWC 2019 as Americas 1 alongside England, France, Argentina and the Oceania 2 qualifier in Pool C.

“Our record at the last World Cup is not one that any of us are proud of,” admitted Ardron.

Match highlights: Canada v Romania
Romania produced the biggest comeback in Rugby World Cup history after they overturned a 15-point deficit to seal a dramatic victory against Canada.

“A couple of the games only came down to a matter of a few points – and the Romania one was obviously hard to take. We weren’t far behind on the scoreboard, but nobody remembers that and, hopefully, we can put things right.

“It’s not long until the next tournament so I’m definitely looking forward to the chance of being a part of that, especially as I only played a limited part last time around. I missed the first game, played against Italy and then got injured 20 minutes in against France.”

UNDERDOGS

Following the end of his four-season stint playing professional rugby with the Ospreys in Wales, Ardron has returned to Canada to prepare for internationals against Georgia and Romania before the two all-important games against the Eagles, and another trip overseas to join Brodie Retallick et al at the Chiefs.

Should Canada come off second best against their neighbours, they’ll be forced to play-off against Uruguay or Chile, the two remaining contenders for the Sudamérica Rugby A Championship title, for the right to go to Japan as Americas 2, where Australia, Wales, Georgia and the Oceania 1 qualifier lie in wait in Pool D. Lose that, and then they enter the lottery of the repechage tournament.

Ardron is aware that the USA go into the double-header as favourites given the respective sides’ recent set of results.

“I made my debut against the US in 2012 and, back then, we’d go into the game really confident and assuming we’d win if we played well. But nowadays they’ve got a lot more players than us playing in top professional leagues and it is going to be a real challenge.

“I haven’t played for Canada since the last World Cup so I am a little out of touch, but hopefully we can pull together as a team and do well in the four games this summer.”

SUPER OPPORTUNITY

Once his international commitments are over, Ardron, who turns 26 next month, will head over to New Zealand to play for the Bay of Plenty in the Mitre 10 Cup, before hooking up with the Chiefs. He is following in the footsteps of fellow Canadians Jebb Sinclair and dual international Christian Stewart, who played for South African teams in Super Rugby.

“If I could have chosen a time to go there and play Super Rugby, this would have been it,” he said.

“I am really excited to play the style of rugby that they play in Super Rugby and see what it’s all about and improve myself as a player. The reason I think that will happen is because, from what I understand, they pay a lot of attention to one-on-one skills work and everything else is secondary to that.

“Hopefully getting a Canadian into Super Rugby with the Chiefs will help encourage others to look our way too. The boys who came over to Europe before me, they definitely helped me get a job because people could see what we can do."