The individual brilliance of Victoria鈥檚 Connor Braid highlighted an otherwise difficult 13th-place weekend for sa国际传媒 at the USA Sevens in Las Vegas.
The Oak Bay High graduate and James Bay Athletic Association product displayed his combination of power and speed to be named the impact player of the tournament for his 28 carries, 11 tackles, two breaks and two offloads. Braid is second in the World Series DHL impact player of the year season standings behind Langi Joseph Molia of New Zealand.
The Langford-based Canadian team finished strongly on Sunday in Sin City with consolation-side victories, 28-12 over France and 21-12 over Wales.
Also on the Canadian team were St. Michaels University School-graduates Mike Fuailefau and Luke McCloskey of Victoria, Isaac Kaay of the University of Victoria Vikes and former UVic legend Nathan Hirayama. Pat Kay of Duncan is injured.
McCloskey scored a try against France and Fuailefau a try against Wales. Hirayama was his usual efficient self in scoring tries against France and Wales and kicking all the Canadian converts, including three against Wales. Hirayama is fourth in World Series scoring this season with 137 points behind American Madison Hughes (166), Aussie John Porch (151) and Kiwi Andrew Knewstubb (145). Hirayama is also fourth all-time in World Series career points and third all-time in career converts.
Sunday followed pool play in which sa国际传媒 drew 12-12 against Spain, lost 33-19 to world power New Zealand and 26-19 to surprise USA Sevens-finalist Samoa, before dropping a tight 21-19 decision to Scotland in the first consolation-round game.
While that was disappointing, Sunday鈥檚 two wins showed resilience and gave sa国际传媒 some momentum heading into its biggest annual tournament of the World Series season on Saturday and Sunday when more than 60,000 fans will be out over two days for the sa国际传媒 Sevens at sa国际传媒 Place.
Host sa国际传媒 has been drawn into a pool with Samoa, Kenya and 2016 Rio Olympics gold-medallist Fiji.
sa国际传媒 lost crucial training time this season due to a two-month, pre-season labour dispute last fall followed by the late-winter snow in Greater Victoria that has hampered recent training.
The U.S., meanwhile, hasn鈥檛 been crimped much in recent years in surpassing sa国际传媒 in both sevens and XVs rugby. The Eagles defended their title Sunday on home soil by blanking Samoa 27-0 in the Las Vegas final. It was the ascendant U.S. team鈥檚 fifth consecutive World Series championship final this season after placing second in the previous four tournaments with championship-game losses to New Zealand in Dubai and Sydney and to Fiji in Cape Town and Hamilton, N.Z.
The top four teams in the 10-event 2018-19 World Series will advance directly to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. The top four after Las Vegas are the U.S., New Zealand, Fiji and England. The Canadians are currently 11th in the season standings and will likely have to go through the repechage process next year to earn one of the seven Olympic berths that will be remaining after host Japan and the top-four from this World Series season claim their spots.
The top four women鈥檚 national teams in their 2019 World Series will also advance directly to Tokyo 2020.
