Women’s sevens no longer a secret
Canada has been top three in the sport’s world series for the past three years
When Jen Kish and her teammates travel though airports, they get a lot of looks and a fair number of questions.
They’re obviously incredibly fit and part of a team, but there are no hockey sticks or soccer balls among them. Most aren’t tall enough to play basketball, so no one is quite sure what to make of them.
It’s been that way for years, but a subtle change has happened with the increasing profile of rugby sevens, which make its Olympic debut in Rio this weekend.
“When we say we’re a rugby team, people know what we’re talking about now,” Kelly Russell, a team veteran from Bolton said.
And they’re not just any rugby team anymore.
“The other day in the airport a guy says, ‘Who are you guys?’ and some of us said, ‘We’re the Rugby Canada sevens team’ and I said, ‘No, we’re the Rugby Canada sevens Olympic team,’ ” Kish, the team captain, said, recalling their trip to Toronto for their final week of training before the Games.
“And he’s like, oh man, let’s get a photo.”
The 12 Canadians who take to the pitch Saturday at Deodoro Stadium have been through a lot, individually and as a team, just to get to call themselves Olympians.
Everyone packed their bags and moved to Victoria, where the team is centralized, most of them years ago; half of them have struggled with serious injuries in the last year; and several have played through a parent’s cancer treatments, all in their quest to get to Rio. And they’re far from done. “Obviously, our goal is to win that gold medal and bring that home to Canada,” Russell said. “But we really want to put in a good performance and showcase sevens rugby and how exciting it is and really get the younger generations and kids involved in the game.” Win. Educate. Inspire. It’s not a small list but with all the team’s best players, including Ghislaine Landry and Ashley Steacy, healthy and playing together for the first time all season, it just might be possible.
For the last three years, the Canadian women have consistently been a top-three team on the World Sevens Series and they’ve beaten every team they’ll face in Rio.
“I said years ago, we’re Canada’s biggest kept secret,” Kish said. “The secret is out, we’re on the hunt and we’re true medal contenders.”
This year, they started the season with half their regular squad out injured and finished it with a victory at the last sevens series stop. In the middle, they became a more adaptable team with a deeper skill set, and that may be a key advantage for the Canadians in Rio.
“(Injuries) put us through a lot of stress through the season,” head coach John Tait said.
“(But) it has really prepared us going into these Games. If we have to chop and change the lineup game to game or even within a game, we’re ready and the players are ready to step up and do it,” he said. “This group has never been fitter or faster than they are right now.”
That’s vital in rugby sevens, which bares little resemblance to the traditional 15-a-side game. Each game is just 14 minutes long (20 in the final) and action-packed — tackle, pass, sprint, repeat — from start to finish. It’s fast and unpredictable.
Last year, the Canadian women’s team had three goals: qualify for Rio, win a World Series event and win gold at the Toronto Pan Am Games. They accomplished them all.
They hope to be able to say the same thing at the end of their threeday tournament in Rio.
“It’s historic on all levels,” Kish said. “It’s the first Canadian women’s rugby team to compete, the first time it’s a South American Olympics, it’s the first gold medal for the sport, it’s the first everything and it will leave such a legacy for others to say this is possible.”