From the West Coast of Canada to the West Coast of Australia, one might think the Langford-based Canadian rugby sevens teams would have found a bit of situational comfort at the Perth Sevens.
But not quite, as the Canadian men’s and women’s teams kicked off the Olympic year with uneven starts Friday. The Canadian women, who qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics through the North American and Caribbean tournament last summer at Starlight Stadium, opened with a nifty give-and-go between University of Victoria Vikes stars Carissa Norsten and Krissy Scurfield to give Canada a 12-7 lead over Great Britain, only to have the British rally late to win 14-12.
Scurfield scored two more tries, her third of the day assisted on a pass by Caroline Crossley of Victoria, in a 26-7 victory over South Africa. Charity Williams, the last connection on the roster to the 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medallist team, also scored a try in her 30th career appearance in a World Series tournament.
The Canadian women, who have qualified for the quarter-finals in Perth, lost 31-14 to Australia in their final pool game today. Canada is ranked No. 5 in the world.
“It was great to get back together [in Langford] following the holiday decentralization period and continue seeing the dedication and work ethic from all the players in our program,” Canadian women’s head coach Jack Hanratty said in a statement before the team departed for Australia.
“We have a huge number of events ahead of us this season and are happy to have so many quality rugby players challenging for selection. We showed through the first two stops in Dubai [fourth] and Cape Town [sixth] that we can compete with the best in the world.”
The Canadian men, preparing for the last-chance Olympic qualifier for Paris 2024 in June at Monaco, opened with a 24-7 loss to the South Africa Blitzboks as Josiah Morra scored the Canadian try, on an off-load by Jack Carson of Victoria, that was converted by Lachlan Kratz of Victoria. Oak Bay product Carson scored Canada’s lone try in the 29-5 loss to Argentina.
The Canadian men, ranked ninth in the world, lost 33-12 to Spain in their final pool game today.
“Our sights remain focused tournament by tournament and on building a consistent product that reflects the commitment, competition and resilience this group puts forward each day in our daily training environment in Langford,” said Canada head coach Sean White of Victoria.
The Canada Sevens will take place Feb. 23-25 at B.C. Place.
