The Langford-based Canadian women’s rugby sevens team is looking to make another timely statement ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Canada went 2-1 through pool play in the Cape Town Sevens on Saturday by beating Brazil 32-0 and Spain 28-7 before being edged 14-12 by France. The latter can be considered an upset since Canada is 23-3 against the French in all-time head-to-head World Series matchups.
World No. 2-ranked Canada still earned a quarter-final berth this morning against the U.S. The semifinals and final are also today.
The Canadians won the silver medal last weekend in the Dubai Sevens, losing a tight 17-14 final to the New Zealand Black Ferns in the waning seconds. That helped to make up for a sharply-disappointing sixth-place finish in the World Series season-opening USA Sevens in October at Denver, Colorado.
Today’s quarter-final match-up in Cape Town against the U.S. will be telling because the Americans have won the last two World Series meetings against Canada – 29-26 in the quarter-finals at Denver and handily 34-10 in pool play last weekend in Dubai.
“This is obviously a big year and every weekend we come to play our best rugby for each other and for the girls back home,” said Canadian captain Ghislaine Landry following the Dubai tournament.
The Canadians, who qualified for Tokyo 2020 by placing in the top four of last season’s World Series, have a roster in Cape Town that melds experienced players with emerging youngsters. Veterans in Dubai from the 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medallist team include Charity Williams, Karen Paquin, Kayla Moleschi, Bianca Farella, Brittany Benn and captain and all-time World Series scoring-leader Landry. They are joined by six players from the Maple Leafs development squad, which played in last month’s Oceania Sevens in Fiji. They included Caroline Crossley of Victoria, Elissa Alarie, Emma Chown, Sara Kaljuvee, Kaili Lukan and the University of Victoria Vikes’ Pam Buisa.
The Canadian men’s sevens team, also based in Langford, lost 33-21 to Argentina and 33-5 to New Zealand before beating Wales 17-14 in pool play Saturday in Cape Town. The Canadians meet Australia today in the 11th-place playoff. Canada was 10th last weekend in the World Series-opening Dubai Sevens.
The Canadian men failed to qualify for Rio 2016, but are Tokyo 2020-bound after winning the North and Central American and Caribbean Olympic qualifying tournament last July in the Cayman Islands. But that was against regional minnows, not the big-time sharks of the World Series.
“This series is challenging stuff,” said Canadian head coach Henry Paul, following the Dubai Sevens.
The Canadian men are led by Mike Fuailefau and Connor Braid of Victoria, Pat Kay of Duncan and University of Victoria great Nathan Hirayama.
Harry Jones of West Vancouver and Hirayama co-captain Canada.
There are 10 men’s and eight women’s events in the 2019-20 World Series, which will decide seedings for the 12-team men’s and women’s 2020 Tokyo Olympic tournaments.
There are two Canadian stops, with the men’s Canada Sevens scheduled for March 7-8 at B.C. Place and the women’s Canada Sevens for May 2-3 at Westhills Stadium.
