Canadian rugby sevens squads look to showcase skills in Paris
The margins are very slim on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. Just ask Canadian women’s coach John Tait.
“It’ll give you stomach issues, for sure,” said the six-foot-eight former Canadian international forward.
Take the women’s World Series stop last month in Langford, B.C.
Canada needed a last-ditch length-of-the-field try by Charity Williams to dispose of No. 9 Ireland by a 19-17 score in its final pool game to make the Cup quarter-finals. Then, after clawing their way back from an early deficit to lead the U.S. 26-21, the Canadians turned over the ball on a flubbed restart and conceded a converted try with no time that gave the Americans a 28-26 quarter-final win.
The Canadian women went on to finish fifth, beating England and Ireland. But valuable points were lost in the standings.
The hope is that the final World Series stop in Paris, which starts Friday for the women and Saturday for the men, will set the tone for both Canadian teams’ runs at the World Cup Sevens in July in San Francisco.
“We definitely want to get back on the podium in Paris,” said Tait. “But even more importantly, whether that happens or not, is to get some consistency in our defensive lines. If we’re going to give up tries, the other team has to work a lot harder than they have been for them.
“If we can get our defence, our attack goes better, as well.”
Tait’s team has had an up-anddown season with a roster ravaged by injuries and the early retirement of battered former skipper Jen Kish.
The Canadian women had three goals this season — win the World Series, do well at the Commonwealth Games in Australia and finish the campaign with a bang at the World Cup Sevens. The first two goals weren’t met. The Canadian women stand fourth in the World Series standings, tied with the U.S. on 44 points. Australia tops the table with 74, followed by New Zealand at 70 and France at 54.
And Canada lost 24-19 to England in the bronze-medal match at the Gold Coast Games.
Canada has finished third in the World Series four times in the last five seasons. It was runnerup the other year.
This season Canada was fourth in Dubai, third in Sydney, 11th in Kitakyushu, Japan, — where injuries played havoc — and fifth in Langford.
The good news is Tait’s roster is finally healthy. The hard-running Williams and Bianca Farella missed most of the season but are now giving opposition defenders fits. Captain Ghislaine Landry, a scoring machine, and Britt Benn also are back from injury.
Farella goes into the tournament on 96 tries with an opportunity to join Landry (107), Australia’s Emilee Cherry (124) and
New Zealand’s Portia Woodman (178) in the century try club.
Canada will be without Julia Greenshields, who tweaked her knee in Langford but is expected to be back in time for the
World Cup.
The women are in a pool with Russia, Australia and Fiji in Paris.
Australia, which won the first two events of the season, and
New Zealand, which took the last two, will slug it out for the overall title.
Defending champion New Zealand has won four of the last five titles, with Australia winning the other.
The Canadian men also want to finish the World Series on a high note after a positive seventhplace showing last weekend in London that saw them rise from 11th to ninth in the overall standings.
Damian McGrath’s team made the Cup quarter-finals for just the second time this season, only to run into a red-hot Fiji side in London. Fiji won 40-7 en route to its fourth straight tournament win — and fifth in the last six events.
The Pacific Islanders, who lead South Africa by seven points in the standings, have won 25 games in a row.