Madrid is the venue this month. Next month it will be Paris.
The Langford-based Canadian women’s sevens rugby team warmed up for the Olympic Games in the French capital by recording its biggest victories of year on Saturday, stunning defending Tokyo Olympic champion New Zealand 26-17 and beating Great Britain 22-17 in pool play in the HSBC World Series Grand Final tournament in Spain.
Tries from captain Olivia Apps, Piper Logan, Keyara Yardley and Charity Williams, the latter the last connection to the 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medallist team, gave Canada the upset win over New Zealand.
Canada was set to meet France in the semifinals this morning.
“Our squad has had the Grand Final circled on our calendars all season,” Canadian head coach Jack Hanratty said in a statement.
“It’s a weekend of tough, quality competition with the best in the world, which is exactly what we want [as] we look to put forward another performance that we are proud of and to continue to establish ourselves amongst the top nations.”
The No. 5-ranked Canadians are working towards that goal with eyes on the podium for Madrid this weekend, and Paris next month, the latter after gaining their Summer Games berth by winning the North American and Caribbean Olympic qualifying tournament at Starlight Stadium last August.
The Canadian men, also based in Langford, are in desperation mode this weekend to stay alive in the World Series relegation-promotion tournament in Madrid to remain in the 12-team HSBC World Series for next season.
It didn’t start well in pool play with losses to Uruguay, Germany and the United States. It comes down to a last-gasp game today with Canada playing Spain.
The winner will remain in the 12-team top-tier HSBC World Series for the 2024-25 season and the loser will be relegated to the second-tier Challenger Series.
Following Madrid, the Canadian men prepare for the last-chance Paris Olympics qualifying tournament June 21-23 in Monaco, for which they qualified by placing second to the U.S. in the direct North American and Caribbean Olympic qualifying tournament last summer at Starlight Stadium.
“We’re marching towards the pressure with shields up and spears out,” Canadian head coach Sean White of Victoria said about the respective World Series promotion-relegation and Paris Olympic qualifying tournaments in Madrid and Monaco.
RUGBY NOTES: The Canadian and American Under-20 men’s XVs teams opened their two-game set Saturday at Shawnigan Lake School with the U.S. overcoming an 11-7 halftime deficit to beat Canada 33-18. The two’ teams of tomorrow play their second game on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Starlight Stadium … The defending-champion Claremont Spartans again won the B.C. girls’ Triple-A high school sevens championship in Abbotsford with a 22-5 win over the Reynolds Roadrunners in the all-Island final … Blue-chip University of Victoria Vikes recruit James Holm scored all three tries for Collingwood of West Vancouver, and was named tournament MVP, as the Cavaliers defeated Robert Bateman of Abbotsford 17-12 in the boys’ Double-A high school XVs championship game. All-rounder Holm was also the B.C. Double-A basketball MVP … Historic powerhouse rivals Shawnigan Lake School and St. George’s of Vancouver were playing in the boys’ high school XVs Triple-A final in Abbotsford.
