It’s not what was wanted from last year’s perspective. Ideally the men’s team would still be on the World Rugby 7s series and, with the women, drawing in the crowd. Will the crowds still come without the men in the main tournament or do people just want to party and rugby is the extra bonus. We’ll find out in February.
The Canadian men have a date in March in South Africa. There they will play two back to back tournaments and hope to finish in the top 8 or their journey is over. Only the top 8 teams will move on to Poland in April, and then only the top 4 will move on to LA for the promotion/relegation tournament in May.
Canada won the RAN 7s without giving up a point but what’s next on the Challenger Series? Canada have to finish top four in that series to get a place at the promotion/relegation tournament, when again the top four move up to the Tier 1 World Rugby Series.
Canada are expected to win the Rugby Americas North 7s tournament, without USA present. The win is essential to begin the journey back to the World Rugby 7s Series. The winner of the RAN 7s will get on the Challenger 7s series and a top 4 finish there will get them in the promotion/relegation tournament at the end of the year.
The men’s and women’s 7s teams are on different paths this coming season, the women are preparing for the World Rugby 7s series which kicks off in Dubai on November 29th. Canada are in a pool with NZ, Japan and Brazil. As a buildup to the series the women are crossing the border on November 17th for a day of 7s in Portland, Oregon vs the USA and a PR7s all-star team. The press release for that is posted below.
The Canadian men will not be going to the Olympics, they lost to South Africa in the semi-finals 28-0 and then to Spain in the 3rd/4th place match 31-14. South Africa and Great Britain are playing in the final to determine the one Olympic qualifying spot. Canada did win their quarter-final match against Chile 24-19.
It was a sad day for the men’s 7s program as they lost to Spain 22-14 in the promotion/relegation game and they are out of the series for next year. We’ll cover the ramifications of that in an editorial during the week. Remaining on the series next year are Spain, Uruguay, USA and Kenya. The men now focus on the Olympic qualifier later this month.
NZ claimed the double in Singapore winning both men’s and women’s tournaments, Argentina were name league winners on the men’s side with most points accumulated over the season, NZ were league winners on the women’s side. The Canadian women finished 7th with a 17-5 win over Great Britain, the men finished 12th for their 5th tournament in a row, losing to Samoa 17-12.
The women’s team lost to Fiji in the 5th/6th final, 19-15, that result leaves them in 5th place in the standings with 72 points. The USA are ahead of them by 10 with 82 points and Fiji are behind them by 18 with 54 points. With one tournament left in Singapore, it’s likely Canada women will finish the regular season in 5th place before entering the final seeding tournament in Madrid. The final tournament will determine the winner of the series, not the total points in the series, a change by World Rugby. In Madrid the top 8 teams will be divided into two pools with 1,4,5,8 in one pool and 2,3,6,7 in the other pool. Currently that would put Canada in a pool with USA, GB and whoever finishes first, currently tied between Australia and NZ.
The Canadian women continue to roll along with a 4th place finish to follow the 3rd in Vancouver. They now sit in 5th place in the series standings, 2 points behind USA. The bottom four teams facing the relegation tournament are Brazil, South Africa, Japan and Spain. There are two tournaments left before the Madrid final, Hong Kong and Singapore. The pools for Hong Kong (Apr 5-7) have been announced, the women are in a pool with USA, Japan and Spain.