One year ago, Caroline Crossley played for Oak Bay in a high school rugby game during a break in the action of the 2016 sa国际传媒 Sevens at Westhills Stadium in Langford.
But there are no more sideshows to the main event for Crossley, who was named to the Canadian roster for the 2017 sa国际传媒 Sevens today and Sunday at Westhills.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a bit of a jump,鈥� said Crossley, in what may be the understatement of the weekend.
Crossley, Julia Greenshields from Sarnia, Ont., and Breanne Nicholas from Blenheim, Ont., are the three newcomers to the roster and join the nine veterans from the 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medallist Canadian squad.
Today is sa国际传媒鈥檚 first game on home soil since Rio.
鈥淲e are going to feed off the energy of the crowd but we also need to keep focused on the field,鈥� said Crossley, making just her third career HSBC World Series appearance for sa国际传媒, following up from Dubai last year and Las Vegas this season.
The rising Castaway Wanderers product watched and learned from sa国际传媒鈥檚 rise to the Olympic podium in Rio last summer and seems poised to play a prominent role in this quadrennial leading to the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, 2019 Lima Pan Am Games and 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
鈥淭he work ethic professional attitude of our veteran players is remarkable,鈥� noted Crossley, of what she has learned by studying the Canadian veterans.
鈥淭hey are so clinical in pressure situations.鈥�
The six-foot Crossley gives sa国际传媒 more of a physical dimension. Being a hometown player on the host team makes it a dream scenario for her.
This is the fifth of six stops on the 2017 HSBC World Series and features all three podium finishers from the Rio Olympics last summer 鈥� champion Australia, silver-medallist New Zealand and bronze-medallist sa国际传媒.
The Kiwis lead the 2017 World Series championship standings with 76 points after the first four tournaments in Dubai, Sydney, Las Vegas and Kitakyushu, Japan. The final tournament will be June 24-25 in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
The remaining two World Series season podium spots are a toss-up between Australia, currently in second place with 66 points, and sa国际传媒, third with 64. Fourth-place Fiji has 50 points and will need a furious late-season run to make the podium, as will Russia, which rounds out the top five with 46 points.
After a bad start in Dubai, sa国际传媒 has rebounded for a good season with first place in Sydney, second place in Japan and third place in Las Vegas.
But there remains the elephant on the Westhills turf 鈥� the host team鈥檚 underachieving fifth- and sixth-place finishes in the sa国际传媒 Sevens the past two years.
鈥淭his game [sevens] is too short to make tactical errors,鈥� said veteran Canadian player Bianca Farella, of sa国际传媒鈥檚 shortcomings in the quarter-final stage the last two years at Westhills.
鈥淕ood teams capitalize on mistakes.鈥�
That is a hard lesson sa国际传媒 put to good use last year. A late-game quarter-final collapse against France at Westhills stunned the host Canadians in the 2016 sa国际传媒 Sevens. sa国际传媒 learned from that and didn鈥檛 let it happen again when the hand of fate directed the Canadians to another meeting against the French in the Olympic quarter-finals at Rio.
鈥淲e kept our composure in Rio and channelled our energy better,鈥� said Canadian player Hannah Darling, of the lessons learned from last year鈥檚 debacle at Westhills.
Yet, in an ominous sign, no host team has ever won a women鈥檚 World Series tournament. sa国际传媒 hopes to break that jinx. It will take the 12 national teams a total of 33 games this weekend in Langford to decide the 2017 sa国际传媒 Sevens champion, beginning today at 10:30 a.m. with England versus the U.S. and games following in rapid succession. sa国际传媒鈥檚 pool games today are against Brazil at 12:20 p.m., France at 3:04 p.m. and Russia at 5:48 p.m.
Fewer than 200 of the 6,430 tickets over the two days remain and organizers are hoping for a sellout with the walk-ups.
鈥淚t means a great deal for us to share all our hard work with our Canadian fans,鈥� said Farella.
Darling reflected on the impact of the Olympic medal: 鈥淧eople watched us on TV in Rio and we helped Canadians fall in love with rugby sevens. It鈥檚 going to be awesome this weekend with a lot of people here.鈥�
