Canada’s Senior Men’s Sevens squad ready for intense period as RAN Qualifiers are added to schedule
Rugby 7s Senior Men
Head Coach Henry Paul will have the benefit of calling upon an expanded cohort of players next month during what will be a busy period for Canada’s Senior Men’s Sevens team following confirmation the 2022 RAN Sevens Qualifiers will take place in Nassau, Bahamas on April 23 and 24.
March 8, 2022 (Langford, BC) - Head Coach Henry Paul will have the benefit of calling upon an expanded cohort of players next month during what will be a busy period for Canada’s Senior Men’s Sevens team following confirmation the 2022 RAN Sevens Qualifiers will take place in Nassau, Bahamas on April 23 and 24.
RAN announced on February 28 the two-day tournament will be hosed at Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium by the Bahamas Rugby Football Union next month having previously been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event serves as the qualifiers for the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 in Cape Town, South Africa as well as The Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, England for which Canada has pre-qualified.
The addition to its calendar means the Canada’s Senior Men’s Sevens squad will be expected to play on three consecutive weeks in April, with the RAN Sevens Qualifiers preceded by the HSBC Singapore Sevens on April 9 and 10, and the HSBC Canada Sevens in Vancouver on April 16 and 17.
To ensure his squad can satisfy the demands of an intense cycle, Head Coach Paul will expand his cohort for the next two months, providing a timely opportunity for developing young talent and players on the fringes of his roster to stake their claim.
“There is no doubt this will be an intense period for us,” Paul commented. “Fortunately, we can call upon a group that is familiar with each other, our training environment and the standards needed to be successful in competition after bringing together a similar, expanded cohort last July. This is vitally important in ensuring we are able to go into the month of April with confidence that we can meet the demands of our schedule.
“All of the players understand the requirements of these three important competitions, and they will relish the opportunity to showcase their skills on the international stage. We will field the strongest possible squad for all three events, knowing success at each of them is crucial to us achieving our goals in 2022.”
The players added to Canada’s Senior Men’s Sevens cohort will be confirmed in the coming weeks, while the rosters for the HSBC Singapore Sevens, HSBC Canada Sevens and RAN Sevens Qualifiers will be announced closer to the respective events.