Canadian rugby sevens men finish World Series season in Europe
A trip to London and Paris is a walk in the park for the Canadian rugby sevens men after an April marathon that took them to Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore.
The European tour is a chance to end the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series on a high note and set the tone for the marquee Rugby World Cup Sevens in July in San Francisco.
Canada opens the London Sevens on Saturday against No. 9 Samoa before facing No. 2 South Africa and No. 15 Russia at Twickenham, the home of English rugby. The season finale goes June 9-10 in Paris.
It’s been a disappointing campaign for the Canadian men, who currently stand 11th in the World Series standings. Canada finished eighth in 2016-17, 13th in ’15-16, ninth in ’14-15 and sixth in ’13-14.
On the plus side, Canadian coach Damian McGrath has been able to draw on almost all of his roster for London and Paris.
“Having the strength we’ve got in this squad, I’m confident we can at least make the quarterfinals,” he said in an interview. “I’m not saying we’re good enough to make top four, but top eight is certainly a place when everyone is fit that’s where we belong.”
McGrath is down to 16 players but 13 are fit, making for a full tour squad.
“That’s a big positive for us,” said McGrath.
Tevaughn Campbell is not with the sevens squad. The speedy defensive back returned to CFL training camp, only to be released by the Montreal Alouettes.
Liam Underwood remains injured. A shoulder and concussion injury is now a vision issue.
“It’s been a long complicated process for Liam. He’s such a great player that we’re taking our time and hopefully he’ll be available for the World Cup (Sevens) if he gets the all-clear from the specialist over the next two to three weeks,” said McGrath.
Jake Thiel also has concussion issues dating back to February. Phil Berna is having plates taken out of his ankle and elbow and won’t be ready until next season.
Canada’s best finish this season was a fourth in Cape Town, with an impressive win over Fiji before losing to host South Africa in the bronze-medal game in the second stop of the Series. But that’s the only time it cracked the Cup quarter-finals for a top-eight finish. The Canadians placed 11th in Dubai, 13th in Sydney, 11th in Hamilton, 10th in Las Vegas, 14th in Vancouver, 10th in Hong Kong and 10th in Singapore (where it won the previous season).
The Commonwealth Games consisted of a win over Zambia sandwiched between losses to Kenya and New Zealand.
After the bright showing in Cape Town, Canada’s roster was decimated by injury in a 52-5 loss to Scotland in Sydney with several players going down.
“We’ve never recovered from that point on. Those players, we tried to rush them back and it’s backfired on us,” said McGrath.
The players were all on board with their injury comeback, he added. But the lack of depth took its toll.
Injuries, the absence of depth and reduced funding have hurt McGrath’s team. In truth, all three are connected.
After the Canadian men failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics, the program lost all of its Own The Podium-recommended funding in fiscal 2017-18. It had got $850,000 in 2016-17.
That’s life in the cutthroat world of Canadian amateur sports. But Rugby Canada, after making a case to get the funding back, hopes to get back a little less than 50 per cent of the money back. Final approval is pending.