Canada’s women’s and men’s teams both started with a win and ended with a narrow loss on day two of the 2023 HSBC Canada Sevens Rugby Tournament.
Canada’s women’s and men’s teams both started with a win and ended with a narrow loss on day two of the 2023 HSBC Canada Sevens Rugby Tournament.
Five different players scored for Canada’s Women’s Rugby Sevens team in their Pool C final match against Brazil, starting with Chloe Daniels in the 5th minute. allowed Canada to lead 12-0 at the break. Bianca Farella extended the Canadians’ lead further in the first 30 seconds of the second half, followed by tries from Fancy Bermudez and Piper Logan and two more conversions from Apps. It was Logan’s first try in the World Rugby Sevens Series. Brazil scored in the final minute, but Canada still prevailed 31-7.
“We came onto the court with a different intensity, we wanted to play aggressive and exciting and we wanted to ignite the crowd,” Fancy Bermudez said.
Canada’s men’s rugby sevens team faced Chile in their final match in Pool D. Josiah Morra reached 200 points in the World Rugby Sevens Series by scoring the first of two tries in the 3rd minute of game. Matthew Percillier also scored two tries, his 3rd and 4th of the tournament. Lockie Kratz pulled off four conversions. The Canadians led 28-0 in the 13th minute, when Chile scored their first points with a try from Baltazar Jana and a conversion from Luca Strabucchi. The Canadians responded with seven more points in the final minute, Thomas Isherwood sending Jake Thiel to the try on a pass after contact, before scoring the two more points on the conversion.
“We knew we had to correct some of the mistakes we made in yesterday’s games,” said Josiah Morra. After a tough loss to Ireland, we came together as a team and knew we had to bounce back to the public, but also for ourselves. We were able to do it and impose ourselves against Australia, and fortunately we were able to take all the opportunities that were given to us, [ce que nous avons fait] today also against Chile. »
Having finished third in Pool C, and as the second-best team in third place, Canada’s women’s sevens rugby team advanced to the quarter-finals, where they faced New Zealand, winner of the last three stages of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The New Zealanders scored twice in the first half to take a 10-0 lead, but the Canadians held them for the rest of the game. Keyara Wardley scored for Canada in the 11th minute, and the team continued to put pressure on New Zealand in the dying minutes. New Zealand eventually won 10-5, but the crowd of BC Place Stadium stood to applaud the Canadians as they left the field.
“We’ve played four games now, and I think we fell short in one of them and lost two others by less than 7 points,” said Jack Hanratty . New Zealand are the best team in the world and we love playing them because it means we have to step up our game. We had the opportunity to play them in a friendly this week at BC Place behind closed doors , and so it was fitting that this quarter-final took place. Today I thought we handled the ball really well in the game against New Zealand, considering the pressure they put on in defence. »
“It was a very daring performance, we put everything we had on the field,” said Krissy Scurfield. What we learned from this meeting is that we are building ourselves and that being able to compete in such a close game against a top team gives us great confidence. »
Canada’s men’s sevens team finished third in Pool D, meeting Spain in the quarter-finals for 9th place. Jack Carson struck first for Canada with a conversion from Lockie Kratz, but Spain responded with three tries and two conversions, leading 19-7 in the 9th minute of play. Percillier and Morra continued to impact the field for Canada, Percillier sending Morra to the try on a pass after contact. With Isherwood’s conversion, the Canadians closed the gap, but Spain took the win 19-14.
“We didn’t stick to our game plan early on, we kind of let them play their game,” said Alex Russell. It’s a pretty crazy sport, rugby sevens, you can see yourself in the top four and suddenly now playing for 13th place. It’s part of the job and now we have to learn from our mistakes and move on, and look to the next game. We’ve shown real growth, we’re really building a team. All we have to do is fine-tune these little details and I’m sure everything will fall into place. »
Canada’s sevens rugby teams will return to the field on Sunday March 5 for the final day of the 2023 HSBC Canada sevens rugby tournament. Canada’s men’s sevens rugby team will face South Africa at 9 a.m. 10:00 p.m. PST / 12:22 p.m. EST in the semi-finals for 13th place, while the women’s team will face Ireland in the semi-finals for 5th place at 11:46 a.m. PST / 2:46 p.m. EST.
Coverage of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series is available in Canada on CBC. All tournaments are available to stream on cbcsports.caon the CBC Sports app and on the free CBC Gem streaming service.
For the latest results and schedule, visit the official website: world.rugby/sevens-series.
One-day tickets are still available for Sunday, March 5. Buy your tickets now on the website canadasevens.com.
