Comeback win over Uruguay propels Canada into day two of the 2024 Series Play-off

Canada’s Men’s Sevens Team collected a win and a loss on day one of the 2024 Series Play-off at Twickenham Stadium in London, facing two teams Canada had met the previous weekend in Toulouse.

Starting off against Kenya, Alex Russell scored his first of two tries to get things started in the third minute. What followed was a back-and-forth game, with Canada and Kenya alternating tries. Kenya led 14-12 at half-time following a second try from Russell and a conversion from Thomas Isherwood (who reached 150 career World Rugby Sevens Series points), as well as two tries from Kenya’s Kevin Wekesa (both successfully converted).

Max Stewart scored the fifth try of his rookie season in minute nine, converted by Isherwood, to give Canada the lead. But Wekesa was on a roll, tying the game with his third try. Edmund Anya was the hero for Kenya, scoring in the final minute of play to give Kenya a 24-19 win.

Canada’s second match against Uruguay was a must-win. With Uruguay up 7-0 in the fourth minute, Isherwood went on the attack and nearly scored, but the ball was held up and the try waived off. Moments later however, Matt Oworu offloaded the ball to Brock Webster, who found a break in Uruguay’s defence at the halfway line and scored (converted by Stewart) to help tie the game.

Uruguay managed one more try to lead 14-7 at half-time, increasing that to 21-7 in the ninth minute. However, the final three minutes belonged to Canada and to Webster, who was involved in all of Canada’s tries and ended up contributing 14 points to the game. An offload from Webster to Jack Carson led to Canada’s second try (converted by Webster). Shortly afterwards, a pass from Oworu to Webster once again got Canada on the scoreboard, with Webster converting his own try to give Canada a 21-19 lead in the final minute.

Canada’s Men’s Sevens Team closes out round robin play on Sunday May 21 at 3:57 a.m. PT / 6:57 a.m. ET against Tonga, with the play-off final (featuring the top two teams) scheduled for 8:56 a.m. PT / 11:56 a.m. ET.

Broadcast coverage of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series is available in Canada via CBC. All tournaments are available to stream via cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app, and the free CBC Gem streaming service.

For the latest scores, results and schedule, visit the official website: world.rugby/sevens-series.