The Langford-based Canadian rugby teams put up an encouraging display in men’s, but not so much in women’s, over the weekend at the HSBC World Series Spain Sevens tournament in Stadium Ciudad de Malaga.
Showing how much the women have fallen from the 2016 Rio Olympic bronze medal performance, sa国际传媒 was stunned 17-14 by an invitational Polish side in one of the biggest upsets in female sevens history.
The disbelieving Polish players shouted and hugged each other joyously following the game. The Canadians also lost 22-7 to the U.S and 33-10 to Australia in group play and will be looking to exact revenge when they meet Poland again in the fifth-sixth semifinal this morning. The championship semifinals feature the U.S. versus Tokyo Olympics silver-medallist France and Russia playing Australia.
The sa国际传媒 roster includes University of Victoria Vikes graduates Pamphinette Buisa and Paige Farries, the latter with Westshore RFC. Elissa Alarie is also from Westshore RFC and Olivia Apps is a Victoria native out of Queen’s University. Rio Olympics medallist Karen Paquin is also on the team in Spain.
The rebuilding Canadian squad will be looking for better when it hosts the women’s HSBC sa国际传媒 Sevens from April 30 to May 1 at Starlight Stadium in Langford.
sa国际传媒 went 2-1 in men’s group play in Spain, beating Kenya 19-17 and Wales 26-7 before losing 38-5 to France, to advance to the quarter-finals against South Africa. The Canadians were beaten 14-0 by the Blitzboks in the quarter-final match-up and were to play the U.S. this morning in the fifth-sixth place semifinal.
The men’s championship semifinals today have South Africa playing Australia and England meeting Argentina.
The Canadian men continued introducing its next generation with the team in Spain including Sion Griffiths of Mill Bay, who is also a sa国际传媒 high school silver-medallist javelin thrower out of Brentwood College and a former javelin thrower for the UBC Thunderbirds, before the Cowichan RFC product decided to concentrate fully on rugby. The six-foot-two Islander is joined by Noah Bain of Abbotsford in making his international debut in Malaga.
Griffiths and Bain are among the newcomers introduced since the fall as Rugby sa国际传媒 looks to build to the 2024 Paris Olympics following the retirement of the veteran core group — Victoria’s Connor Braid, UVic Vikes legend Hirayama, Harry Jones, Justin Douglas and Conor Trainor — that got sa国际传媒 to the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Olympics last summer.
Griffiths joins the new wave that includes fellow-Island players Brennig Prevost out of Glenlyon-Norfolk School, Jack Carson from Oak Bay High, Victoria’s Ciaran Breen out of Shawnigan Lake School, Anton Ngongo from Claremont Secondary and Mill Bay’s Matt Percillier from Brentwood College.
They were introduced over the fall in HSBC World Sevens Series tournaments held in Vancouver, Edmonton and Dubai, although not all made the trip to Spain because of injury or unavailability as Canadian management looks to spread the net wide and evaluate as many young players as it can in HSBC World Series tournaments.
Olympians Phil Berna and Jake Thiel have returned to the roster in Spain following injuries. Fellow veteran Cooper Coats was leading sa国际传媒 in scoring in Spain after four games.
The younger group in Spain includes Griffiths, Bain, Ngongo and Matthew Oworu of Langford-based Pacific Pride.
