TORONTO – For the last six months, the Canadian men’s rugby sevens team has been caught in two minds.

It has competed in 10 stops on the HSBC World Series while trying to stay focused on its ultimate goal of Olympic qualification. After a disappointing season, there is just one mission left. Canada leaves Saturday for Europe and a last-ditch Olympic qualifier June 18-19 in Monaco.

The Canadians finished 13th in the season standings, failing to make the elite Cup quarter-finals in every event although they were only denied on tiebreakers on three occasions. The final verdict on the season won’t be known until Monaco however.

Olympic qualification has been the elephant in the room for a year.

“It’s been a World Series of small margins that we haven’t got on the right side of,” said Canadian coach Liam Middleton. “At the same time, mentally in many cases, what we have in front of us has been in front of us all season. It’s been a very strange situation where I almost feel as a group we almost had this sense of relief and excitement that the World Series was over.

“It was like ‘That’s done,’ but actually everything that’s been on our mind all season is now right in front of us. It’s not the right way to think but unfortunately it’s the way the mindset has been framed.”

The other teams competing for the final men’s berth in Rio are Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Mexico,Morocco, Russia, Samoa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Tunisia, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.

The winner will join host Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Britain, Fiji, France, Japan, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.S. in Rio.

Samoa, which finished ninth in the overall World Series standings and won the Cup in Paris, is considered the favourite in Monaco. The Pacific Islanders were 4-2 against Canada this season although the Canadians won 24-19 in London the last time they met. Russia also competed on the World Series, finishing 14th.

In many ways, Canada looked to peak twice this season — in the inaugural World Series stop in Vancouver in March and Monaco.

“If you look at it, we did peak in Vancouver and looking at (the final World series stop in) London, we were probably climbing towards that peak. I don’t know if we’re going to peak in Monaco, but I kind of sense we will,” Middleton said.

Through the vagaries of sevens rules, the Canadians went 5-1 on home soil but only finished ninth — denied a chance to reach the Cup quarter-final on a tiebreaker. Still it was an impressive showing.

Things went south after that, however. Canada went 12 games without a win, a stretch that touched on tournaments in Hong Kong, Singapore and London.

After Vancouver, Canada opened strongly in Hong Kong, leading powerful Fiji 17-5 only to lose 19-17. The Canadians eventually finished 14th, losing on 19-14 on to Russia on April 10. They did not win again until May 21 when they dispatched Samoa in London.

“We kind of slid into a bit of a dark hole, mentally more than anything,” said Middleton.

He admits the Olympic qualifier prompted him to make decisions he wouldn’t have made if the team was just focused on the World Series. Key players like captain John Moonlight were rested down the stretch to keep them fresh for Monaco. Others were allowed to nurse injuries.

Middleton believes the team emerged from its funk in London where it went 2-2-1 and finished tied for 11th after missing the Cup quarter-finals on another tiebreaker. And the focus became absolute after the Monaco draw, which put Canada in a group with Germany, Uruguay and Sri Lanka.

“You could really sense it was like “Right this is here now. This has been on our minds for 12 months. It is here now. You don’t have to think about the World Series tournament in front of us and then the qualifier. We need to think about just this.

“And I felt the weight come off the guys a little bit.”

In truth, Canada has played better than its record would suggest. And Middleton has added to the program’s depth by unearthing young talent. The team is due a good break.

Canada, which won’t officially release its repechage roster until Monday, was forced into the last-ditch qualifying tournament after losing 21-5 to the U.S. last June in the NACRA Sevens Cup final. A top-four finish in the 2014-15 World Series would also have meant Olympic qualification but Canada placed ninth.

The Canadian women booked their Olympic ticket by finishing second on their circuit last season.

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