Canada’s sevens teams bring home Pan American Games silver and bronze

Canada’s sevens teams both concluded the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games with battles against the United States for medals, with Canada’s Men’s Sevens Team beating the United States to win bronze and Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team losing to the United States to take silver.

The second day of competition at Estadio Municipal de la Pintana started with Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team playing Colombia in the semi-finals, with five different try scorers contributing to Canada’s 45-14 win. Debutant Carissa Norsten opened scoring, with Alysha Corrigan and Piper Logan contributing two tries each. Tries and conversions from Asia Hogan-Rochester and Breanne Nicholas, as well as a conversion from Charity Williams, helped Canada book their ticket to the gold medal match.

Canada’s Men’s Sevens Team met Argentina in the semi-finals. Los Pumas held a 7-0 lead at half-time, scoring early in the second to increase their lead to 14-0. Alex Russell entered the game shortly after, making an impact and getting Canada on the board, his try converted by Lockie Kratz. However, a Canadian yellow card in the final minutes gave Argentina an opportunity to go on the offence once again. Argentina’s 21-7 win sent Canada to the bronze medal final, where they met the United States for the second time this tournament.

“We knew we were off the mark on day one, but we talked about getting back to the basics, getting back to our urgency and communication and we had a performance we can be proud of today,” Head Coach Sean White said of the bronze medal match. “We knew [against Argentina] defensively we were hitting the right mark, on attack we needed to correct a few errors, and we put it all together for the final game when we needed to.”

David Richard was the first to score against the United States, striking off the scrum. Converted by Kratz, Canada took a 7-0 lead just over three minutes in. The United States didn’t let up, scoring at the end of the first half, but unable to convert, with Canada maintaining their lead 7-5 at half-time.

A string of offloads led to a try from Jake Thiel, with Kratz’s conversion bouncing off the post, to put Canada at 12-5. The United States responded a minute later, tying the game.

Russell once again immediately made an impact upon coming off the bench in the second half, with a long sprint down the field to re-establish Canada’s lead with his second try of the day. Kratz added two points with the conversion. The United States scored one last try in the final minute of play, but were unable to kick a clean conversion, with Canada taking the win and the bronze medal by a final score of 19-17.

“All the guys fought really hard. We knew it would be a tight, hard-fought game,” said Kal Sager. “We built over the tournament. Argentina’s a great team, we knew that going in. We played a good defensive game against them and that gave us the confidence to come out here [against the USA], connect as a group and put it all on the line.”

Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team met the United States in their final match as well, playing the Americans for gold for the third Pan American Games in a row. Logan opened scoring off a maul to go up 5-0. With almost three minutes of extra time at the end of the first half, the United States converted a try to steal the lead.

Logan scored her second of the game in the second half, converted by Williams, to help Canada battle back, but two USA tries in the final two minutes gave the United States a 19-12 win, with Canada taking the silver medal.

“It wasn’t the outcome that we desired, but I thought that the performance throughout the weekend was excellent,” said Head Coach Jack Hanratty. “We had a lot of control and possession throughout the entire game, but a score [against] in the last play of the second half and last play of the first half, that was 12 points of the 19 that we conceded. We’re disappointed, but we’re a group that’s building for Paris and with that we want to be in these gold medal games. It’s exactly the kind of preparation that we want, just not the outcome. [Overall] really happy with the group and excited to see where we can go next.”

Canada’s sevens teams return to action in one month for Dubai SVNS. The 2024 HSBC SVNS kicks off December 2-3, the first of eight stops between December and May, with both teams competing on home soil in front of Canadian fans at Vancouver SVNS over February 23-25.