Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team closes out 2024 with a fifth place finish in Cape Town

Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team finished fifth at HSBC SVNS Cape Town, with wins over Great Britain and Japan on the second and final day of competition.

Carmen Izyk opened scoring for Canada against Great Britain in the fifth place semi-finals, sprinting through Great Britain’s defence with a dummy pass. Asia Hogan-Rochester received a pass out wide from Izyk two minutes later to double Canada’s lead to 10-0.

Great Britain scored in the seventh minute, but Piper Logan answered off the kick-off with a try converted by Breanne Nicholas, giving Canada a 17-5 lead at half-time.

Hogan-Rochester scored twice in quick succession in the second half for a hat trick performance. The final few minutes saw Great Britain receive a yellow card and score once more, but Canada took the win 27-12, qualifying for the fifth place play-off.  

For the second tournament in a row, Canada faced Japan in their final match. Carissa Norsten opened scoring in the fourth minute, with Hogan-Rochester taking advantage of a yellow card to Japan late in the first half to increase Canada’s lead, Breanne Nicholas’ conversion putting Canada up 12-0 at half-time.

Two minutes into the second half, Logan increased Canada’s lead to 17-0. Japan scored their only try of the game in the thirteenth minute, but Maya Addai capped the game off for Canada in extra time with her first career SVNS series try, giving Canada a 22-7 win to finish the tournament in fifth.

"The growth of this team was remarkable over these two weeks. The group was challenged and took a lot of ownership of our review from Dubai to put some key learnings in place for Cape Town," said Jocelyn Barrieau, Head Coach of Canada's Women's Sevens Team.

"They showed a lot of pride in possession and had some top shelf world class moments. Looking forward to stringing more and more of those moments together and continuing to solidify our foundations in Perth."

Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team will next compete at HSBC SVNS Perth, the third stop on the 2025 HSBC SVNS series, from January 24 to 26, 2025.

More information on the HSBC SVNS series, including the full schedule, game scores and stats, can be found here.