Canada triumphs in Sydney.
SYDNEY – Canada’s women’s sevens team has won their third HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series cup title after capturing the Sydney Sevens with a 21-17 win over USA.
It’s Canada’s second cup title in the least three series events. They previously won the cup title at the Clermont Sevens last May in the final stop of the 2015-2016 season and the Amsterdam Sevens during the 2014-15 season. Canada improved to 3-4 all-time in series cup finals.
Canada entered Sydney in sixth place in the series standings through one event this season, but after earning 20 points with their first place finish, they jumped ahead of Fiji, England and Russia into third. New Zealand stay atop the series standings after claiming the bronze medal in Sydney, while Australia remain in second place just two points up on Canada after finishing fourth.
Canada began day two action with a 26-5 win over Russia in the cup quarterfinals then followed that up with a 12-7 victory over host Australia. The next stop in the series is the Las Vegas Sevens in early March.
What head coach John Tait said:
“Really happy for the girls to rebound after our first tournament in Dubai. We just showed a lot of resolve coming back, we didn’t have a good finish to day one but they really focused,” said head coach John Tait. “Jen Kish and Britt Benn played a great game in the contact area and retained a lot of ball for us and won a lot of ball. Some of the younger players like Hannah Darling really stepped up and showed she can play at this level so I was pretty happy with that.”
“It was a 12 person effort. The defence over the last day has been building and it takes 12 people to win that and that’s exactly what we did,” added Ghislaine Landry. “We were pretty disappointed at the end of yesterday. Defence is going to win a tournament so we knew that building off of the Russia quarterfinal that that’s what we wanted to focus on. We know what we’re capable of. Every tournament we look to do that. Sometimes it doesn’t go as planned but we’re pretty happy with that and it’s not a surprise to us.”
Canada’s women’s sevens program is centralized out of Canadian Sport Institute Pacific’s Victoria campus, located at Pacific Institute For Sport Excellence (PISE).
Canada’s Sydney Sevens Training Camp Squad (Name, club, hometown):
Britt Benn – Guelph Redcoats (Napanee, ON)
Hannah Darling – Peterborough Pagans (Warsaw, ON)
Bianca Farella – Town of Mont Royal (Montreal, QC)
Julia Greenshields – Sarnia Saints (Sarnia, ON)
Jen Kish – Edmonton Rockers (Edmonton, AB)
Ghislaine Landry – Toronto Scottish (Toronto, ON)
Megan Lukan – Unattached (Barrie, ON)
Kayla Moleschi – Williams Lake Rustlers (Williams Lake, BC)
Breanne Nicholas – London St. Georges (Blenheim, ON)
Ashley Steacy – Lethbridge Rugby Club (Lethbridge, AB)
Natasha Watcham-Roy – Hull Volant (Gatineau, QC)
Charity Williams – Markham Irish (Toronto, ON)
Canada’s Sydney Sevens Day 1 Schedule (Thursday, February 2nd):
Canada 26-5 France
Canada 39-5 Papua New Guinea
Canada 10-31 New Zealand
Canada’s Sydney Sevens Day 2 Schedule (Friday, February 2nd):
Canada 26-5 Russia – Cup QF
Canada 12-7 Australia – Cup SF
Canada 21-17 USA – Cup Final