diff --git a/playbooks/roles/install-docker/tasks/main.yaml b/playbooks/roles/install-docker/tasks/main.yaml
index 36224b0ee1..0f980c90b7 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/install-docker/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/install-docker/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -23,6 +23,10 @@
       - docker-compose
     state: absent
 
+- name: ensure pip3 is installed
+  include_role:
+    name: pip3
+
 - name: Install docker-compose
   pip:
     name: docker-compose
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/pip3/tasks/main.yaml b/playbooks/roles/pip3/tasks/main.yaml
index 8360b0009e..2ad311161a 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/pip3/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/pip3/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -7,11 +7,14 @@
 
 # NOTE(ianw) : See https://github.com/pypa/get-pip/issues/43;
 # requirement of get-pip.py
+# Xenial doesn't have python3-distutils as it appears to be part
+# of python3 itself.
 - name: Ensure distutils
   package:
     name:
       - python3-distutils
     state: present
+  when: ansible_distribution_release != 'xenial'
 
 - name: Download get-pip.py
   command: wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py