SYDNEY - Canadian coach Dave Clark is desperate to play the All Blacks in next year's World Cup, believing it is his side's best chance of reaching the knockout stages of the tournament.
Australian-born Clark is not suggesting that Canada will threaten the All Blacks, but he wants to end up
in pool D, reasoning that Wales could be vulnerable.
The two top teams in each pool progress to the quarter-finals and Clark fancies Canada's chances against Wales, coached by former Canterbury NPC and New Zealand A coach Steve Hansen.
"If Wales don't wake up to themselves it gives us a really good chance to make the quarter-finals," Clark said in Sydney yesterday.
To make the World Cup, Canada have to finish first or second in their four-team Americas qualifying group, which also includes the United States, Uruguay and Chile.
Canada have never missed a World Cup and reached the quarter-finals in 1991, where they were eliminated by the All Blacks. Since then they have slipped well outside the top 10.
"We want to finish No 1 so we end up in the same pool as New Zealand, Wales, the European qualifier, which is likely to be Italy, and possibly Uruguay," Clark said.
The second placegetter faces an unenviable assignment in pool C, lumped in with heavyweights South Africa and England, plus a European and Oceania qualifier.
Clark, who has coached in Canada for six years, is back home on a short three-match tour with an inexperienced side. The focal point is a match with Australia A in Sydney on June 1.
- NZPA
