The Canadian women’s team professed missing the “intimate” atmosphere Starlight Stadium in Langford provided by the previous six HSBC World Series sa国际传媒 Sevens. But the squad basked just as well on the big stage Sunday at sa国际传媒 Place with a season-best sixth-place finish in the 2023 event.
Nearly 67,000 spectators over three days greeted the Langford-based Canadian men’s and women’s squads.
The Canadian women gave Olympic-champion New Zealand all they could handle in the quarter-finals before losing 10-5 to the Black Ferns on Saturday night and came back Sunday to beat Ireland 24-12 before losing 22-17 at the death to Olympic bronze-medallist Fiji.
“We were so close to a semifinal berth and to beating the best team in the world and sometimes the energy of that can almost pull you down in your next performance,” Canadian head coach Jack Hanratty said in a statement.
“We had to rally and come back and the biggest credit that I give the players is how professional they were, how proud they were of their performance [against New Zealand]. But we don’t want to be known for pride, we want to be known for results, and coming back and beating Ireland was a really important result.”
Veteran Bianca Farella, one of the few holdovers remaining in the program from the 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medallist Canadian team, scored three tries in her women’s record-setting 45th World Series tournament and welcomed the greater exposure and equity that sa国际传媒 Place provided to the women’s sa国际传媒 Sevens.
“It’s exciting to play in a huge stadium and align with the men’s tournament,” said Farella, world fourth all-time in career World Series games played with 241.
“We are always fighting for equality. This has been a long time coming.”
The top-four teams in both men’s and women’s at the end of this HSBC World Series season will qualify automatically for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Canadian women’s team, a formerly reliable top-four placer, is in eighth place in the table with two tournaments remaining and it is looking increasingly likely it will have to go through the regional North America and Caribbean Olympic qualifier for the first time in team history.
New Zealand beat Australia 19-12 in the final to avenge last year’s final-play loss to the Aussies at Starlight Stadium. The result guaranteed a top-four season finish and made the Kiwis the first team to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics after host France.
The Canadian men, also based in Langford, showed well in the group stage by going 2-1 to tie for first place with Ireland and Australia, only to be relegated to the consolation side on tie-breakers as the Aussies and Irish got the championship quarter-final berths.
“It’s why you love and hate the game at the same time, the points spread matters,” said Canadian interim head coach Sean White of Victoria, in a statement.
Lachlan Kratz of Victoria scored nine points as sa国际传媒 closed out with a 31-14 loss Sunday to the South Africa Blitzboks.
The Canadian men are 14th in the World Series standings and in the fight of their lives to stay on the main circuit next year when the current 16-team World Series constricts to 12 teams to align with the number of teams allowed for the Olympics. The 12th through 15th place finishers in the season standings will go into a four-team tournament with the winner gaining the 12th and final spot on the World Series circuit for next season.
“I don’t think we’re happy with where we are, but we can certainly be proud. If we inspired one more kid to pick up a ball or one more parent to sign their kid up to play, I think we’ve done a good job here,” added Canadian bench-boss White.
“Our highs are really high right now and our lows are quite low. We’ve just got to find that even keel. I think we showed what we’re capable of, it’s just about that repeat performance.”
Argentina certainly repeated, as sa国际传媒 Sevens men’s champion for a second consecutive year, with a 33-21 victory over France in the final.
The next World Series tournament is the granddaddy of them all – the iconic Hong Kong Sevens from March 31 to April 2.
