Rugby Canada teams head to World Cup in San Francisco
by Mary P Brooke
In a round of 16, the women’s first game — Canada vs. Brazil — will be on July 20, viewable live at www.cbcsports.ca starting 11:06 am PDT. The first men’s game — Canada vs Papua New Guinea — will be on July 20 at 1:23 pm PDT. All matches throughout the men’s and women’s competition will be presented live on www.cbcsports.ca .
Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018, which features the world’s top 24 men’s and 16 women’s teams, will be played on 20-22 July at the iconic AT&T Park in California. With the recently confirmed innovative ‘knock-out’ tournament format both the men’s and women’s teams will have to win every match to be crowned World Cup winners.
Rugby Canada’s CEO Allen Vansen and Commercial & Program Relations Director Gareth Rees hosted the send-off today, an event held in partnership with Bear Mountain, Butchart Gardens & the City of Langford. Acknowledged sponsors were: DHL, Canadian Sport Institute Pacific, Velocity Trade, Kubota, Butchart Gardens, Westin Bear Mountain, Ecoasis, City of Langford and Mayor Stew Young.
Canada will once again be led by Captain Ghislaine Landry (of Toronto), whose 984 points all-time leads all scorers on the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Series. “With a knockout format it’s going to take four games for us… four games at 14 minutes, 100%,” said Landry to the crowd today. Landry said the team has learned a lot of things this year and that belief in the group is pretty high.
“We know that we’re capable of doing it. The whole year was important building into the world cup. We really dialed into the things that we needed to have a hard look at. Going into this world cup, the biggest thing is the belief,” said Landry at the podium in the hot summer sun. The women’s team line up heading to San Francisco is:
Olivia Apps, Lindsay RFC (Lindsay, ON)
Britt Benn, Guelph Redcoats (Napanee, ON)
Pam Buisa, Ottawa Irish (Gatineau, QC)
Caroline Crossley, Castaway Wanderers (Victoria, BC)
Bianca Farella, Town of Mount Royal RCF (Montreal, QC)
Julia Greenshields, Sarnia Saints (Sarnia, ON)
Sara Kaljuvee, Toronto Scottish (Ajax, ON)
Ghislaine Landry, Captain, Toronto Scottish (Toronto, ON)
Kayla Moleschi, Williams Lake Rustlers (Williams Lake, BC)
Breanne Nicholas, London St. Georges RFC (Blenheim, ON)
Natasha Watcham-Roy, Hull Volant (Gatineau, QC)
Charity Williams, Markham Irish (Toronto, ON)
The men’s team is headed up by Harry Jones (of North Vancouver), who at the podium first thanked supporters before saying that this year’s slow start for the men’s team “obviously got away from what we did best last year”. Jones said: “We’ve fixed up a few of those key things. Just hoping to keep it simple for this next tournament.”
Jones said the team will do best to not look past the next opponent. “Papau New Guinea is the first team we play … they’re a great team, they like throwing the ball around and they get a little bit loose. In Sevens you need to be dialed into that first game,” he said.
“Twelve of us are going to the World Cup, but a whole bunch of others helped us get here,” said Jones. “Our team mates worked just as hard as us this year. I know a few boys are sad about the decision.” Jones acknowledged the support of Langford, and the physio and conditioning staff to get them ready. Canada’s Men’s Roster for Rugby World Cup Sevens:
Connor Braid – James Bay AA (Victoria, BC)
Andrew Coe – Markham Irish (Toronto, ON)
Admir Cejvanovic – Burnaby Lake RFC (Burnaby, BC)
Justin Douglas – Abbotsford RFC (Abbotsford, BC)
Mike Fuailefau – Castaway Wanderers (Victoria, BC)
Lucas Hammond – Toronto Nomads (Toronto, ON)
Nathan Hirayama – Unattached (Richmond, BC)
Harry Jones – Captain,Capilano RFC (North Vancouver, BC)
Isaac Kaay – UVIC Vikes (Kamloops, BC)
Pat Kay – Castaway Wanderers (Duncan, BC)
Luke McCloskey – Castaway Wanderers (Victoria, BC)
Matt Mullins – Queen’s University (Belleville, ON)
This month’s event in California will be the first-ever Rugby World Cup in any form in USA and only second in North America after Canada hosted the 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cup in Edmonton, Alberta. A delegation of Langford supporters will be heading to San Francisco to cheer on the team.
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