Good start, tough finish for men and women at rugby sevens World Cup
It was brutal by the Bay for the Langford-based Canadian men’s and women’s national rugby sevens teams.
The World Cup dreams for both died an agonizing death on Friday at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
Canada defeated Papua New Guinea 29-21 in the first round before being drubbed 28-0 by Argentina in the Sweet Sixteen of the men’s World Cup.
“We’re clearly disappointed,” said Canadian head coach Damian McGrath.
“We were beaten by a better team. We need to cut out the mistakes.”
Canada meets Kenya today for ninth and 16th places.
The Canadian women opened with a 43-19 victory over Brazil only to lose 24-19 in the waning seconds to France on a late try in the quarter-finals.
“That last kickoff was ours to win, but we didn’t get it,” lamented Canadian veteran player Bianca Farella.
“That was a crucial moment for France and they were able to muscle their way down [for the winning try near the death]. That’s sevens for you. It is exciting and crazy. But that’s why we love it.”
The result was sweet revenge for France,which was beaten by eventual bronze-medallist Canada in the women’s quarter-finals of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Canada meets Spain in the fifth/eighth women’s playoff this morning.
The 2018 World Cup features the top 24 men’s and top 16 women’s teams in the world and runs through Sunday in the Bay Area.
The World Cups for both men and women feature an unforgiving singleloss-knockout format. There is no group play. A single loss sends teams to the consolation side.
The Island-flavoured world No. 9 Canadian men’s team includes Mike Fuailefau and fellow St. Michaels University School-grad Luke McCloskey and Oak Bay-product Connor Braid, all of Victoria, Pat Kay of Duncan, University of Victoria Vikes star Isaac Kaay, former UVic Vikes great Nathan Hirayama, Andrew Coe of Markham, Ont., Admir Cejvanovic of Burnaby Lake, Justin Douglas from Abbotsford, Lucan Hammond of Toronto, Matt Mullins of Belleville, Ont., and captain Harry Jones of North Vancouver.
The Canadian women’s team includes Farella of Montreal, Caroline Crossley of Victoria, Pam Buisa of the UVic Vikes, Kayla Moleschi of Williams Lake, Charity Williams of Toronto, Olivia Apps of Lindsay, Ont., Britt Benn of Napanee, Ont., Julia Greenshields of Sarnia, Ont., Sara Kaljuvee of Ajax, Ont., Breanne Nicholas of Blenheim, Ont., Natasha Watcham-Roy of Gatineau, Que., and captain Ghislaine Landry of Toronto.