It wasn’t the beginning the Canadian rugby teams wanted as each the boys and ladies lost their opening matches to Ireland on the HSBC Canada Sevens tournament Friday at BC Place Stadium.
The lads were trounced 35-5 while the ladies dropped their game 28-7.
The early games were played before stands filled with screaming schoolchildren invited for the opening day of the tournament, which ends Sunday.
The lads controlled the ball early against Ireland but couldn’t advance up the sector. Ireland built a 21-0 halftime lead by scoring three tires in under 4 minutes.
Kalin Sager scored Canada’s lone try within the second half.
“We had trouble holding onto the possession,” said the prop from Trent Lakes, Ont., who’s playing in his first 12 months on the World Rugby Sevens Series. “We didn’t quite get it there.
“They got a pair of fine steals on us. Hopefully, we start the subsequent one with as much energy as we finished.”
The rating was a slight improvement as the boys lost 22-0 to Ireland ultimately weekend’s Los Angeles Sevens.
“Each tournament is a constructing block,” said Sager. “We’re attempting to chip away. We’d prefer to have a greater performance on the market for the house crowd.”
The Irish men’s team is ninth within the standings with 68 points while the Canadian men are 14th with 19 points.
Keyara Wardley scored the one Canadian try in the ultimate minute of the ladies’s game as Ireland romped to a 14-0 halftime lead.
“We didn’t start out the best way we wanted,” said Wardley, a centre/wing from Vulcan, Alta. “There have been definitely a whole lot of nerves with the house tournament and the youngsters yelling.
“It was an incredible feeling but we just have to take that and use that to our advantage.”
Head coach Jack Hanratty said some early mistakes put his team on its back foot.
“It’s obviously nice margins but in case you don’t take ownership of each possession you’ll be in for a protracted tournament,” he said.
“That wasn’t how we wanted to indicate ourselves. We don’t just wish to be having fun with playing at home. We wish to be winning at home.”
The tournament has been expanded to incorporate a full slate of 12 women’s teams competing concurrently the boys.
The World Series is reducing the variety of men’s core teams for the 2024 season from 16 to 12, to equal the number of ladies’s teams and align with the Olympic competition structure.
The Canadian men must reach the quarterfinals of the subsequent 4 tournaments, while managing wins when playing the teams ahead of them, to achieve enough points to climb into eleventh place or higher and avoid playing in a relegation playoff.
The Canadian women have 16 points and are ranked tenth after 4 stops on their tour. Ireland is fifth with 52 points.
In other men’s Pool D games, Australia ranked sixth within the standings, beat Chile 36-12.
In other women’s Pool C matches, the U.S. beat Brazil 20-7.
The highest 4 men’s and ladies’s teams at the tip of the season will qualify robotically for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 3, 2023
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