Rugby sevens teams qualify for World Cup
OTTAWA — Both the Canadian men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams made it their goal to qualify for the 2013 World Cup next June in Moscow.
Both succeeded Sunday. The women needed to win the final game at the North American Caribbean Rugby Association championship at Twin Elm Rugby Park, which they did, dismantling Trinidad & Tobago 46-0.
The men only needed to qualify for the final to book their ticket to Russia, but they did one better by winning that championship game with a 26-19 triumph over the U.S. The U.S led early on a converted try by Luke Hume before John Moonlight scored a try for Canada. Two converted tries later, one by Conor Trainor and a second from Moonlight, and the Canadians led 19-7 at the half.
“It’s tough when the last game is 10-minute (halves as opposed to seven) and after a long weekend it’s pretty tiring, but we did what we needed to do,” Moonlight said.
“My first try was great work by the boys moving it wide. We don’t look at it as individuals. The best thing about us is we always look at things as doing them together.”
The U.S. got second-half tries in short order from Carlin Isles and Peter Tiberio, but the second one wasn’t converted and the game was tied heading into the dying minutes. Sean Duke picked up a ball deep in the Canadian end and began the long run that ended in the eventual winning score.
Earlier in the afternoon Canada downed Jamaica 31-0 in their semifinal match right after the U.S. took care of Mexico 33-7 in that semifinal.
For the women, the two-day event was more like a glorified practice as they ran over their opposition winning all six games by a combined 284-0 score. The closet game was a 39-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago in the final roundrobin game. Canada defeated Mexico 42-0 earlier Sunday in the second of two semifinals, while Trinidad & Tobago downed Jamaica 22-5 in the other semifinal to advance to the championship game. Canada also became Caribbean champions with that win.