Saints seeded second at OFSAA lacrosse tourney
Team Canada's Hannah Darling, who grew up in Warsaw and played for the Peterborough Pagans, is tackled by a Team New Zealand player during cup final action at the HSBC Canada Women's Sevens at Westhills Stadium in Langford, B.C., on Sunday. New Zealand defeated Canada 17-7. See more photographs of Darling in action in the online gallery at www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com.
LANGFORD, B.C. - Being on the wrong side of the referee’s calls proved to be irritating for Canadian coach John Tait.
Tyla Nathan-Wong and Michaela Blyde scored first-half tries as New Zealand beat Canada, featuring Warsaw’s Hannah Darling of the Peterborough Pagans, 17-7 Sunday to capture the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series event in Langford.
“It was tough to get any momentum going,” said Tait. “It felt like we started getting some quicker ball going and they were disrupting the breakdown and it was tough to get a gauge on what you could do and couldn’t do in there. It’s something that we’ll look at.
“Some of those calls are just a bit inconsistent for us. . .That’s on us. We gotta adjust to the calls being made and how it’s being interpreted at the time and find a way to overcome it.”
Alena Saili added another try in the second half for New Zealand, ranked No. 1 in the world and known as the Black Ferns Sevens.
Nathan-Wong and Blyde gave New Zealand a 12-0 lead by the three minute mark.
“They are a tough team to beat,” said Tait. “They are pretty relentless.”
Julia Greenshields responded in the sixth minute for Canada and Ghislaine Landry had a conversion.
Canada’s Bianca Farella said the team will take the loss as a learning experience.
“It’s tough,” she said. “In high-stakes games, good teams seem to capitalize on the smallest mistakes. But deep down we have all the tools to beat them. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”
New Zealand’s Ruby Tui was named player of the final match.
“I’m so proud of the girls,” she said.“We just took it game by game.”
The Canadians reached the final by defeating reigning Olympic champion Australia 17-10 in the semifinals.
Australia place third in the series, defeating France 26-12.
Greenshields, Landry and Charity Williams scored tries for Canada in the semis. Williams sealed the win with a spectacular field-length sprint from the Canadian end zone.
Canada defeated England 33-5 earlier Sunday in the quarterfinals.
Canada, which won Olympic bronze last summer in Rio, posted wins Saturday over Brazil, France and Russia.
Tui saluted the Westhills Stadium.
“The crowd is just the bomb,” she said to rousing cheers.
The next stop in the women’s sevens series is June 24 and 25 in Clermont-Ferrand, France. crowd at The St. Peter Saints senior boys field lacrosse team will be the No. 2 seed at the OFSAA provincial high school championships running from Wednesday to Friday in Brantford. St. Michael's College holds the top seed. The Saints open up play Wednesday at 8 a.m. against No. 15-ranked St. Theresa's.