Perfect start for Canadian women
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES— Bianca Farella scored four tries and Julia Greenshields added three more as Canada won all three of its games Thursday on Day 1 of the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens.
Greenshields collected her three in Canada’s 38-7 opening win over Fiji. Farella, who scored one try against Fiji, recorded a hat trick in a 29-7 victory over Spain.
Britt Benn and Kaili Lukan then scored their second tries of the day in a 21-14 win over France that gave the Canadians first place in Pool C.
John Tait’s team will face Ireland in the Cup quarterfinals Friday. The Irish (2-1-0) finished runner-up in Pool A, giving New Zealand a good run for its money before going down 24-17. New Zealand and England went unbeaten in winning the other two groups.
The other Cup quarterfinals are New Zealand versus Russia, U.S. versus France and England versus Australia.
The Canada-Ireland winner will face the England-Australia victor in the semifinals.
Canada is coming off a thirdplace finish in Glendale, Colo, the first stop of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series. The Canadian women went 5-1 in Glendale, losing 2819 New Zealand in the Cup semifinal before beating France 28-0. The Canadian men, whose pre-season preparations were interrupted by a labour dispute with Rugby Canada, open their season Friday in Dubai in a pool with Australia, England and Japan. The Canadian women finished fourth in the overall standings in a disappointing in- jury-plagued 2017-18 season. Tait’s team had placed third in four of the previous five campaigns. Canada was second in 2014-15. The Canadian men were ninth last year. Their previous best finish on the circuit was sixth.
A top-four finish this season means automatic qualification for the 2020 Olympics.