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Rugby Sevens tickets go on sale Friday for Westhills Stadium

Rugby fans in the province will get a direct taste of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at B.C. Place in Vancouver and Westhills Stadium in Langford. The Canadian men’s and women’s teams, both based in Langford, have qualified for the 2020 Summer Games.
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Canadian women’s rugby sevens head coach John Tait: “Always excited to return to our home at Westhills Stadium.”

Rugby fans in the province will get a direct taste of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at B.C. Place in Vancouver and Westhills Stadium in Langford.

The Canadian men’s and women’s teams, both based in Langford, have qualified for the 2020 Summer Games. So, this World Series season is a big dress rehearsal for the grand stage that awaits across the Pacific.

The Canada Sevens stops on the World Series are upcoming — March 7-8 for the men at B.C. Place and May 2-3 for the women at Westhills. It is the sixth year for the women’s tournament on the Island. It was announced tickets will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at canadasevens.com.

Past tournaments have attracted crowds of 3,000 each day, but there are now 6,000 seats available at the expanded Westhills Stadium, so attendance records are expected to be set for the event.

“The HSBC Canada Women’s Sevens has been a great success story as one of only two stand-alone women’s events on the Series,” said Canada Sevens director Laine Walden in a statement.

There is a compelling storyline, of course, to this year’s tournament. “This is the last chance to cheer on our Canadian women’s sevens team on home soil prior to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo,” noted Walden.

Canada will come in after making back-to-back World Series tournament finals, taking silver behind the victorious New Zealand Black Ferns at the New Zealand Sevens in the North Island city of Hamilton and the following Sydney Sevens.

The back-to-back World Series silvers represent an encouraging lead-up by Canada to the Tokyo Olympics.

“We are always excited to return to our home at Westhills Stadium and play in front of a hometown crowd,” said Canadian head coach John Tait of Mill Bay.

“We are coming off silver-medal performances in both Hamilton and Sydney and are hoping playing in Canada will help us continue to improve and grow as we strive for a tournament title.”

Karen Paquin of the Castaway Wanderers of Oak Bay and Kaili Lukan of Barrie, Ont., were named to the Sydney Sevens all-tournament dream team to close out the antipodean set.

Canada is captained by all-time 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medallist and World Series career points-leader (1,356) Ghislaine Landry. Other Canadian players include 2016 Olympic bronze-medallists Charity Williams, Brittany Benn, Kayla Moleschi and all-time Canadian tries leader (153) Bianca Farella. Also on the Canadian roster were three players from Island clubs — Caroline Crossley and Paquin from Castaway Wanderers and Elissa Alarie of Westshore RFC.

Tickets for the Canada Women’s Sevens will also grant admission into the B.C. Rugby club finals that will be running concurrently at Westshore RFC on May 2.

The Canadian men are tied for ninth with Ireland in the World Series season standings and the Canadian women are tied for second with Australia. The next events for the men are the Los Angeles Sevens this weekend in Carson, California, followed by the Canada Sevens next weekend in Vancouver. There is no women’s tournament before the Canada Sevens in Langford.

The Canada Sevens men’s tournament has become a cultural happening and attracts nearly 40,000 per day who fill the lower bowl of B.C. Place. But it’s Southern California this weekend with University of Victoria Vikes legend Nathan Hirayama and Harry Jones of North Vancouver named Canadian co-captains for the Los Angeles Sevens as Canada opens pool play Saturday against Ireland, South Africa and Kenya. The medal round is Sunday.

Also named to the Canadian squad for L.A. are Island veterans Connor Braid and Mike Fuailefau, both of Victoria, Pat Kay of Duncan, Isaac Kaay of the UVic Vikes and former Vikes player Lucas Hammond. They will be joined by Phil Berna, Justin Douglas, David Richard, Theo Sauder, Jake Thiel and Conor Trainor.

The Canada Sevens will be the sixth of 10 World Series women’s tournaments and the sixth of 12 for the men following this weekend in Los Angeles.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com