The Canadian women won Bronze in LA at the World Rugby 7s final, their future looks solid as they look to compete in the 8 team World Rugby division 1 series next season. The men’s program, not so much, they lost to Kenya in the 2nd/3rd playoff for entry to division 2 and now the Canadian men’s path back to division 1 looks very complicated.
World Rugby has unveiled their new format for the 7s game going forward next season. It follows the earlier report from a Uruguay journalist which we reported on April 18th. What impact will it have on the two Canadian teams competing this weekend?
Canada finished 3rd in Singapore, losing to Australia in the Cup semi-finals but defeating France in the 3rd place playoff. Canada finish the series in 4th as they prepare for the championship tournament in LA in May. The teams going to the relegation tournament are Brazil, China, Ireland and Spain.
Canada have risen to fourth in the World Rugby 7s series with a bronze medal win in Hong Kong. They now have 56 points, tied with USA, with one more tournament in Singapore before the championship tournament in LA.
It wasn’t the tournament the women’s team hoped for but they finished strong, defeating USA in the 7th/8th match, 27-10, despite missing two key players due to injury, Krissy Scurfield and Piper Logan. The try scoring trio in the final match Florence Symonds, Asia Hogan-Rochester and debutant Olivia Sarabura may give a glimpse of what lays ahead for Canada with two tournaments left, Hong Kong and Singapore, before the final in LA. Asia Hogan-Rochester was probably the player of the tournament for Canada and Florence Symonds the player of the game in the USA match, Olivia Sarabura scored a crucial try to keep Canada ahead, and she had to do it one on one against the USA defender. Olivia Apps as usual was solid on both sides of the ball.
Vancouver 7s announced the schedule for the 3 day tournament. The men are playing an exhibition series against Trinidad & Tobago and Japan as part of the tournament. Canada will face each team twice over the tournament, playing them Friday and Saturday. The women start their tournament on Friday at 3:28pm against Brazil, then face Spain at 8:58pm. Their final pool game is at 3:08pm on Saturday, the women’s quarter-finals start at 7:32pm on Saturday.
Canada finished 4th in Perth, their best finish of the season to date after finishing 8th and 5th in previous tournaments. Canada now sit in 5th place, 8 points behind USA and 2 points ahead of Japan with 3 tournaments left before the final.
The Canadian women will be in a pool with USA, Great Britain and Fiji in Perth. USA sit in 4th place with a 2nd place finish in Cape Town, GB are in 5th place, Canada in 7th place and Fiji in 11th place. The top 8 teams avoid the relegation tournament in LA and compete for the title. There are 3 more tournaments after Perth and before LA, they’re Vancouver, Hong Kong and Singapore.
It’s a big improvement for Canada, going from 8th in Dubai to 5th in Cape Town. Along the way they defeated Great Britain 27-12 and Japan 22-7. Japan defeated Canada twice in Dubai, so the Cape Town result shows the growth the team have had in between tournaments. The next challenge will be Perth in January, 24-26.
Canada women lost both of their Day 2 matches, first to Australia in the quarter-finals and then to Japan in the 7th/8th playoff match. The loss to Australia was decisive 39-0, the loss to Japan was an improvement over their opening 40-5 pool loss to Japan, this time it was 24-22 with two late Canada tries closing the gap.