RAN 7s 2024

Canada Win RAN 7s Tournament – What’s Next on the World Rugby Challenger Series

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.

In Trinidad at the RAN 7s Canada were the best team by far, defeating Guyana, Bermuda, Cayman Islands,Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago on the way to winning the tournament.

Who will Canada face in the Challenger series for 2025? In 2024 it was Uruguay and Chile representing South America, Uruguay qualified for the Tier 1 World Rugby Series so it will likely be Chile and Brazil this year for South America. In 2024 it was Georgia, Portugal, Germany representing Europe, it will be the same 3 teams this coming season. In Africa it was Kenya and Uganda representing, Kenya won promotion so this season it will be Uganda and Madagascar. From Asia it was Japan and Hong Kong, it will likely be those teams again. From Oceania it was PNG and Tonga, this year it will likely be Samoa and Tonga.

Possible 2015 Challenger Series Teams

Canada
Chile
Brazil
Georgia
Portugal
Germany
Uganda
Madagascar
Japan
Hong Kong
Samoa
Tonga

Challenges Ahead

In 2024 there were three tournaments, Dubai in January, Montevideo in March and Munich in May. The top four teams were Uruguay, Kenya, Chile, Germany – Uruguay and Kenya finished top four in the promotion tournament. That means Chile and Germany would be considered favourites of the remaining teams this season, add in Canada and Samoa who were relegated, and that represents an early choice for top four this season. However there are other teams capable of giving Canada problems if they don’t bring their A game, Uganda, Japan, Hong Kong, Tonga, Portugal all capable 7s teams.

Another factor is the move of some players to MLR, Cooper Coats, Josiah Morra and Matt Oworu who were all a big part of the RAN 7s wins are moving on to XVs careers in MLR.

Canada will have to continue their strong defensive effort from RAN 7s but will have to cut down on the errors and be more precise. They lost a few scrums on their own feed, they made a number of handling errors, sometimes looked disorganized on attack, they’ll have to fine tune those details before the Challenger Series begins.

There’s been no official word from World Rugby at the time of writing what the 2025 Challenger Series will look like, will Canada try to host one of the tournaments? More info to come when it’s made available.

CANADA’S MEN’S SEVENS TEAM – RUGBY AMERICAS NORTH SEVENS

5. Alex Russell (Bracebridge, ON) – McGill University
6. Josiah Morra (Toronto, ON) – Castaway Wanderers / Toronto Saracens / New England Free Jacks
8. Cooper Coats (Halifax, NS) – Halifax Tars / NOLA Gold
10. Noah Bain (Abbotsford, BC) – UBCOB Ravens
12. David Richard (Milton, ON) – Mississauga Blues RFC
14. D’Shawn Bowen (Toronto, ON) – James Bay AA
15. Ethan Hager (Brantford, ON) – Brantford Harlequins
19. Matthew Oworu (Calgary, AB) – Pacific Pride / Chicago Hounds
22. Kyle Tremblay (White Rock, BC) – Pacific Pride / UBC Okanagan
23. Thomas Isherwood (Okotoks, AB) – Foothills Lions RFC
27. Johnny Franklin (Bowen Island, BC) – Capilano RFC
55. Jack Shaw (Oakville, ON) – RFC LA / Castaway Wanderers
64. Elias Hancock (Ottawa, ON) – Bytown Blues / University of Ottawa