The women鈥檚 sevens rugby form chart for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics is topped by the antipodal neighbours Australia and New Zealand, with the Langford-based Canadian side tipped for bronze.
But the Canadian players returned to Victoria this week with silver medals from the Sao Paulo Sevens, proving they will have other ideas when they return to Brazil in August for when it really counts in the five-ring circus.
sa国际传媒 blanked France 19-0 in the quarter-finals Sunday before recording its first-ever World Championship Series victory over New Zealand with a 19-10 win in the semifinals of the Sao Paulo tournament. The Canadians, however, were blitzed 29-0 by the Aussies in the championship game played in a humid downpour.
Australia leads the World Championship Series standings with 40 points after the Dubai and Sao Paulo events. sa国际传媒 and New Zealand are tied for second place with 28 points each, France third with 26 and England fifth with 23 heading into the next World Series events at Atlanta on April 8-9 and Westhills Stadium in Langford on April 16-17.
鈥淚t was really important to get back into the top tier,鈥� said Canadian head coach John Tait, in a statement.
鈥淭he competition is only getting tougher, so we needed to go out and prove again to ourselves . . . [that] we can compete and win tough games. Being on the wrong side of a one-sided final was tough because we know we are a much better side than the final score showed, but the Aussies put us to the sword. The girls dug deep but came up a little short, so we will be hungry to go one better in Atlanta and Langford come April.鈥�
Canadian captain Jenn Kish scored several spectacular tries on the weekend in Sao Paulo.
The Canadians now return to training at Westhills ahead of the Atlanta and Langford World Series tournaments.
