Canada sevens wins two out of three games, falls short of advancing to the cup quarter-finals
On March 12 and 13, 2016, the World Rugby Sevens Series came to Canada for the first time. Hosted in Vancouver, B.C., it was the sixth stop out of 10 legs on route to the cup.
The HSBC World Series takes place over 10 weekends in 10 different countries. The world’s best sevens players travel to Dubai, Cape Town, Wellington, Sydney, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, and London in an enduring test of strength.
Rugby sevens is played with only seven players on the field, versus the normal 15. Games are made up of two halves, totalling only 14 minutes of play. In rugby, when the time runs out on the clock, the game continues until the ball is put out of play.
Canada sat at 12th place in the overall rankings, and were stacked up against number 13 Wales, fourth ranked Australia, and 15th ranked Russia under Pool B. Game one versus Wales started well for the intrepid Canadians, as they went up 14-0. Wales came back in the second half with the game tied at 19-19. The Welsh team made a last-minute effort to score a try after time had run out and beat Canada 26-19 in a heartbreaking finish.
Canada faced a sturdy Australian side next. This fast paced game had fans in B.C. placed on the edge of their seats from start to finish. Losing to the Aussies 12-7 as time ran out, Canada was not done yet. Expertly keeping possession of the ball, Canada worked it up to Australia’s end zone. That’s when six foot five, 265 pound Adam Zaruba bulldozed his way through the defense to score a try. Nathan Hiyarama secured a conversion, giving Canada a historic 14-12 win over Australia.
In order to progress to the quarterfinals, however, Canada was going to have to beat Russia by more than 30 points. Stuck in a tiebreaker with Wales, winning the game was not enough as Canada could not muster enough points to earn a berth to the next round.
On day two of the series, Canada faced off against Brazil in the consolation bowl quarter-finals. They easily defeated the unranked Brazilian squad 19-0 and moved on to the consolation semis against England. Canada had control of the English for the entirety of the game, vanquishing them 17-7.
The Canadians moved on to the consolation bowl final, the game for ninth place against France. In the dying minutes of the game, Canada were down 17-7 and needed to score two tries in order to win. As time ran out again for the Canadians, Harry Jones found his way across the try line to make the game 17-12. At this point, all France had to do was kick the ball out of bounds, but somehow they missed the opportunity and Canada got the ball back. They continued to press until captain John Moonlight also found his way through to score a try in front of the roaring crowd. Canada clinched ninth place, beating France 19-17.
The wins against Australia, England and France are momentous for Canada as they build towards the last chance Olympic qualifier held in Monaco in June.
The Canadian women finished second overall on the 2014-15 edition of the Women’s Sevens World Series, which automatically qualified them for Rio. The HSBC Canada Sevens Women’s Rugby Tournament will be held in Langford, B.C. on April 16 and 17, 2016.