Canadian women suffer narrow loss in France Sevens quarters

TOULOUSE, France — A late try by Eva Higgins lifted Ireland to a 22-21 rugby win over Canada in Cup quarter-final play Saturday at the HSBC France Sevens.

Ireland outscored the Canadian women three tries to one in the second half on a hot afternoon at Stade Ernest-Wallon to advance to the semifinals. Canada will play the U.S. in the consolation fifth-place semifinal today.

Renee Gonzalez, Olivia Apps and Olivia De Couvreur scored tries for Canada with Apps and Breanne Nicholas combing for three conversions.

The Canadian women defeated Spain 26-12 and Scotland 14-7 on Friday but fell 17-0 to New Zealand in their final pool game Saturday. New Zealand topped the group, outscoring the opposition 91-0.

New Zealand will face Fiji in the Cup semifinals today while Australia takes on Ireland.

The Canadian men lost 24-5 to England before upsetting Argentina 19-12 on Friday.

Argentina came into the tournament in second place overall in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, having finished on the podium in five of the six previous events including a firstplace finish at the HSBC Canada Sevens in Vancouver last time out in April.

Canada wrapped up pool play Saturday with a 40-14 win over Japan but missed out on the Cup quarter-finals on point differential behind England.

Canada trailed Japan 14-7 at the half but took control with second-half tries from captain Phil Berna, Brennig Provost and Thomas Isherwood and a pair from Elisas Ergas.

There was controversy in the other game in Canada’s pool when England’s Will Homer, with his side trailing 19-0, crossed the Argentina goal-line with 2 1/2 minutes remaining in the match.

Knowing the try would be enough to move England past Canada into the Cup quarter-finals on points differential, Homer elected to kill off the clock and didn’t touch the ball down until there was less than 30 seconds remaining — and little chance to affect their point differential. The South Americans won 19-7.

England and Canada finished pool play at 2-1-0 with England having a plus-18 points differential, compared with plus-14 for Canada.