Canada's women's sevens team off to semis in Vancouver

Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team is off to the semi-finals at HSBC SVNS Vancouver, progressing to the top four with a thrilling quarter-final win over the United States at BC Place Stadium on Saturday.

The team closed out pool play on Saturday morning with a 22-5 win over Spain. Fancy Bermudez and Florence Symonds scored in the first half, with Canada holding a 10-5 lead at half-time. Charity Williams clinched a milestone 450 career world series points with a try in the ninth minute of play to increase Canada’s lead. Asia Hogan-Rochester had the last word, their try in the 13th minute converted by Chloe Daniels.

“For us we wanted to put in a complete 14 minutes, and we know that if you want to get into the top four in this competition, it’s got to be a complete 14 minutes,” said Head Coach Jack Hanratty. “I don’t think that was a complete 14 minutes. I think we had moments that we still needed to punch away, and we didn’t end the first half on our terms, which we really wanted to. We started the second half in a much better way.”

The quarter-finals featured a classic border battle between Canada and the USA. Symonds and Krissy Scurfield both scored in the final minutes of the first half, Daniels converting Scurfield’s try to give Canada a 12-0 lead at half-time. Ariana Ramsey scored twice for the USA, both conversions missed, with Canada claiming a 12-10 win.

“We focused a lot going into that game on how we can manipulate the US defence, and a big part of it was dragging them side to side and opening up gaps in the middle. That’s exactly what we did, we give it to our speedsters, we give it to our playmakers early and they create magic,” said Olivia Apps. “It feels incredible. This is exactly where we wanted to be to finish this weekend.”

The final pool play match for Canada’s Men’s Sevens Team was also against Spain, who took an early 12-0 lead over the home team. Josiah Morra, with a conversion from Thomas Isherwood, cut down Spain’s lead at the end of the first half, but Spain scored right away off the top of the second to further increase their lead. Jack Carson converted his own try in the 14th minute, Spain coming away with a 31-14 win.

Canada then faced South Africa in the ninth place semi-final. South Africa held a 15-0 lead at half-time, but Morra then started to stage a comeback, scoring his second try of the day early in the second half. South Africa got one more try on the board, with Morra scoring yet again in the final minute. Max Stewart converted both Canadian tries, and South Africa won 20-14.

“Jo’s a world beater. You give that guy a little bit of adversity and he always rises to the occasion,” Head Coach Sean White said of Morra, who is now one try away from reaching 300 career world series points. “We want to see a little bit more fight like the one inside of Jo, and that’ll be the challenge from over tonight and getting into the game tomorrow.”

Canada’s Men’s Sevens Team will close out the tournament on Sunday February 25 at 10:37am PT / 1:37pm ET, taking on Spain in the 11th place play-off, which will be available on TSN+. Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team plays New Zealand in the semi-finals at 12:01pm PT / 3:01pm ET, which will be available on TSN+ and TSN2.

TICKETS

To purchase tickets for Sunday, and for further event information, please visit vansevens.com.  

MORE INFO

For the most up to date information on the HSBC SVNS Series and live coverage, including details on the event format, the schedule and the latest news, visit the official website: svns.com.