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The Langford-based Canadian men’s rugby team pulled a Clint Eastwood with a bit of everything — the good, bad and the ugly — in finishing .500 at 2-2-1 at the Cape Town Sevens.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ concluded play Sunday with a 55-0 drubbing of Russia in the Bowl quarter-finals before falling 21-14 in a credible Bowl semifinal loss against No. 5 overall England. Host South Africa defeated Argentina 29-14 in the final.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ placed 11th and picked up five points in the second tournament of the 2015-16 Sevens World Series after finishing 13th for three points in the opening Dubai Sevens the week before.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, ninth overall in 2014-15, is 13th in the current overall World Series standings after the first two events with eight points — two points behind 12th-place Wales but five points clear of 14-place Russia. The overall leaders are Fiji and South Africa, with 35 points each.

The Canadians return to training in the new year at Westhills Stadium to prepare for the Wellington Sevens in New Zealand beginning Jan. 30.

The sixth stop in the 10-event 2015-16 World Series is the inaugural sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Sevens, March 12-13 at sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Place.

The crucial target, however, is the last-chance Olympic qualifier June 18-19 in Monaco for the 12th and final spot into Rio 2016. (sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ was beaten by the emerging U.S. — currently tied for third in the overall World Series standings — in the final of the North American and Caribbean regional Olympic qualifier played earlier this year.)

Phil Mack of Victoria, with the 89th and 90th of his career, Justin Douglas of Abbotsford and University of Victoria Vikes grad Nathan Hirayama scored two tries each Sunday against the Russians. Admir Cejvanovic of Burnaby Lake and Harry Jones of North Vancouver scored tries against the English. Also dressed were captain John Moonlight from James Bay Athletic Association, Pat Kay of Duncan, Sean White of Victoria, Nanyak Dala of the Castaway Wanderers of Oak Bay, UVic Vikes-grad Sean Duke, Mike Fuailefau of Victoria, a graduate of St. Michaels University School, and Matt Mullins from Belleville, Ont.

Earlier in the tournament in pool play, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ upset Rio-bound New Zealand 24-12 and played to a 26-26 draw against France, which is also Rio-bound. But a 24-10 Canadian loss to No. 11 overall Samoa in pool action was something to mull over because the form charts have sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ and Samoa as the likely finalists in the last-chance Olympic qualifier in June at Monaco with only one advancing to Rio.

The Canadian women’s sevens team, also based in Langford, finished the 2014-15 season ranked No. 2 in the world to gain automatic qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics and appears poised as one of the big Canadian stories for Rio.

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