Canada’s Women set for first double header of the season in Dubai and Cape Town

27/11/2019

Rugby 7s Senior Women

LANGFORD, BC (November 27, 2019) – Head coach John Tait has named his travelling 13 for the Dubai (December 5-7) and Cape Town (December 13-15) stops on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

Canada are coming off of a sixth-place finish at the Glendale 7s, where a tight loss to the USA in the quarterfinals put them out of medal contention. Canada will get another shot at the now first place Eagles in Dubai, facing off against them in pool A along with Russia and Brazil.

“It’s a really tough pool,” said head coach John Tait. “Obviously, the U.S. won the last one in a really tight match and same goes for our game against Australia. It wasn’t where we wanted to finish, but we take a lot of confidence from that experience. The two teams that went to the final, we had those teams beat, really. It was just down to our mental errors in decision making that cost us those games.”

With nine weeks between Glendale and Dubai, Canada added in a stop at the Oceania 7s to their training schedule. The Maple Leaf’s tour brought in women’s 15s Courtney Holtkamp and Emily Samek, as well as Rugby Canada Development Academy graduate Ella O’Regan.

Six players from that Maple Leaf’s squad—Elissa Alarie, Pam Buisa, Emma Chown, Caroline Crossley, Sara Kaljuvee, and Kaili Lukan—will join Canada for Dubai and Cape Town.

“The Oceania 7s was a great opportunity to test our wider squad against some quality competition in New Zealand, Australia, and Japan,” said Tait. “It was a really good exercise for the team, and we learned a lot about each other and about our depth. Hopefully that will pay off as the year goes on.”

After a 40-point performance in Glendale, the all-time points leader Ghislaine Landry will captain Canada once again. Dubai marks the first tournament of the season for Britt Benn and Sara Kaljuvee, who are both returning from injury.

Fans can watch the Dubai and Cape Town 7s LIVE on CBC Sports with updates, stats, and more available on World Rugby 7s channels.

Canada’s Roster:

1. Elissa Alarie, Westshore RFC (Trois Rivieres, QC)

2. Brittany Benn, Guelph Redcoats (Napanee, ON)

3. Pamphinette Buisa, Ottawa Irish (Gatineau, QC)

4. Emma Chown, Aurora Barbarians (Barrie, ON)

5. Caroline Crossley, Castaway Wanderers (Victoria, BC)

6. Bianca Farella, Town of Mount Royal RCF (Montreal, QC)

7. Julia Greenshields, Sarnia Saints (Sarnia, ON)

8. Sara Kaljuvee, Toronto Scottish (Ajax, ON)

9. Ghislaine Landry, Toronto Scottish (Toronto, ON) - Captain

10. Kaili Lukan, Unattached (Barrie, ON)