Canada’s medal hopes dashed with loss to Scotland
Canada’s men’s rugby sevens team arrived in Glasgow with its hopes pinned on a medal.
But the Canadians proved no match for a Scottish team that had the heart of the host country — and the some-45,000 delirious screaming fans at Ibrox Stadium — behind it.
Canada, whose lineup included Newfoundlanders Ciran Hearn of Conception Bay South and Patrick Parfrey of St. John;s, dropped a 21-5 decision to Scotland on Saturday at the Commonwealth Games in a dra- matic battle it needed to win to be in the mix for the medals.
“It always is a factor if it’s your home team, isn’t it?” coach Kieran Crowley said. “You always see that the home team in a tournament like this does massively well.
“Massive disappointment. We came here with the objective to get a medal. Now we have to recover, obviously be very disappointed, but come morning, we’ve got to focus on finishing ninth now.”
Canada won its final game, a consolation final, by defeating the Cook Islands 50-7 on Sunday.
New Zealand had its Common- wealth sevens undefeated streak snapped when the All Blacks lost to South Africa 17-12 in the gold-medal final. Australia won bronze.
Connor Braid scored the lone try for Canada, which had lost 39-0 to defending champion New Zealand in its opener then bounced back to run roughshod over Barbados 68-5 — Hearn scored two tries in that game — setting up the must-win game against the Scots.
“Proud of all the guys,” said an emotional John Moonlight, Canada’s captain. “No matter what happens, that last game I think we put it out there. The score didn’t go our way. A lot of things didn’t go our way.
“I guess we have to wait four years for another chance. It hurts. You don’t forget stuff like this and (Sunday) we’re going to come out with three wins, 100 per cent.”
The Canadians knew they were in for a stiff test against the Scots in the rowdy jam-packed Ibrox Stadium. The noise was deafening when the two teams walked onto the pitch to ACDC’s “Thunderstruck.” They clapped and stomped their feet and broke into spontaneous chants of “Scot-land!” They booed when a call went Canada’s way.
“It’s tough but it’s cool, it’s some- thing you can thrive off of for sure,” Braid said of the crowd. “We beat them at home in Glasgow in May, and that was a really good feeling so we were just hunting for that the whole way through.
“It came down to a couple missed tackles, but the boys really put it out there against a really strong Scottish team.”
Rugby sevens will make its Olympic debut in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, and if Saturday’s action was any indication, the sport will be a massive hit. More than 185,000 sevens tickets were sold, including a sellout on Sunday.