Bruce Mouat cannot wait to face familiar foe Canada as GB bid for curling gold

Bruce Mouat cannot wait to battle a familiar rival in Canada as Great Britain’s men’s curling team look to upgrade their silver medal of four years ago to Olympic gold on Saturday.

The British team looked more likely to be on a plane home on Saturday evening than playing in the final after a patchy round-robin performance that left their hopes riding on results on Thursday morning’s final session.

But those fixtures did play in Britain’s favour and they lined up against Switzerland in the semi-finals, with a fantastic triple take out from Mouat summing up the remarkable turnaround in their fortunes as they triumphed 8-5.

Mouat’s side now comes up against Brad Jacob’s Canadian squad, with Britain having won the majority of their meetings to date, including in last year’s world championship semi-finals when Mouat’s rink were playing as Scotland.

He said: “Our first ever world championship final, we played Canada in Canada, so now getting to play an Olympic gold medal game against Canada is pretty special.

“It’s really good for our sport. I think Canada’s got a ridiculous number of members that all curl. We’re pretty excited to play Brad and the boys.”

Mouat and Jacobs have a rich history, with the pair embracing in the mixed zone after they had won their respective semi-finals at the Cortina Olympic Curling Stadium.

Jacobs skipped a different team to gold in Sochi back in 2014, with Mouat finding the Canadian’s career an inspiration for his own.

He said: “I’ve looked up to Brad for a long time. Brad’s been incredible for coming up to 12 years since he won the gold medal in 2014.

“I was still kind of trying to push through the ranks at that time. So, to see him and the boys really almost change our sport in terms of being athletic, being professional.

“Brad’s taught me a lot about the game and it just feels like a pretty special moment for us to have that kind of embrace and just to go out and battle on Saturday.”

The Canada team has not had quite the same rollercoaster ride to the final, but they found themselves under the microscope after their match with Sweden last week descended into an argument over alleged double touching of stones.

Player Marc Kennedy was involved in that disagreement, but – with the incident now firmly behind him – he is focusing on beating the “best team in the world”, with Canada having won 9-5 when they met earlier in the week.

He said: “I have a sense that sometimes in the round robin, sometimes they give away some games that they probably could or should win.

“But regardless, once it comes play-off time, they’re just an unbelievable group.

“So we’re going to have to play our best, but we start with the hammer, so that’ll give us a little early advantage. It’ll be a hell of a battle.”

The Canadian set-up also features a face who is very familiar to curling fans as David Murdoch – who skipped the Brits to win silver behind Jacobs’ rink in Sochi – is now high performance director for Canada, having previously coached Mouat and his team.

Kennedy added: “I’ve got nothing but great things to say about Dave and he’s done incredible things for our program. I think he was the right choice for the job.”