Tyler Ardron didn't have to watch Japan shock South Africa to know upsets are possible at the Rugby World Cup.

The Canadian captain, restored to health from a knee injury at the Pacific Nation Cup, believes anything is possible with the proper preparation and right execution.

"I'm sure if you asked Japan, they did their homework," Ardron said from Leeds, England. "When you watch a team like that during the game, you can see that they've studied the other team and they know what's going to happen. And they were able to execute their game plan a little better than South Africa was."

Japan moved up two spots to No. 11 in the world rankings after its 34-32 win Saturday over South Africa in Brighton. The Springboks fell three places to No. 6.

Playing just four days later, the Japanese fell back to earth Wednesday in a 45-10 loss to No. 12 Scotland.

Canada, ranked 18th in the world, looks to take down No. 15 Italy on Saturday at Elland Road in Leeds.

The Canadians are 2-5-0 against Italy, which has won the last four meetings between the two. Canada's wins came in 1983 and 2000.

Both Canada and Italy are 0-1-0 after losses Saturday. Despite some good patches of play, the Canadians were put to the sword 50-7 by No. 5 Ireland while an inconsistent Italy was beaten 32-10 by No. 7 France.

Nineteen of the points scored against Canada came while acting captain Jamie Cudmore was off on a yellow card.

Ardron says Canada just needs to put 80 minutes of play together.

"It was just that little bit of inexperience," he said. "There was probably only the 10 minutes (with Cudmore in the sin-bin) and another 10 minutes in the second half that we let down. Other than that, I think we matched them very well.

"But what separates the top teams from the rest is that they can play 80 minutes at the highest level. And we put in about 60 to 63 minutes of really good rugby."

Ardron points to the Japan-South Africa game, saying the Japanese put in a full shift.

"They could have done that really well for 70 minutes and South Africa could just have easily won that game. It was never going to be a blowout either way."

Ardron has not played since straining his medial collateral ligament against Samoa on July 29 at the Pacific Nations Cup. The 24-year-old from Lakefield, Ont., was close to returning for the Ireland game but team officials elected to give him a few extra days recovery time.

He wore a brace at times but was able to walk — and do pretty much everything as long as it involved going in a straight line until the knee healed.

Ardron, a six-foot-four No. 8, plays his club rugby for the Ospreys in Wales so was able to play tour guide for his teammates ahead of their tournament opener in Cardiff. That included hosting them at an Ospreys' game and taking them to a friend's restaurant.

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