After having their early expectations derailed, the Canadian ladies’s sevens staff hopes enjoying in entrance of a hometown crowd on the upcoming HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series occasion in Vancouver will help put their season again on monitor.
“It’s not been the beginning and the season that we had been wanting,” co-captain Olivia Apps mentioned throughout a break in coaching. “There’s heaps to be mentioned about this new group and simply attempting to construct some chemistry and a few cohesion with some new faces.
“I feel for myself and the staff, we’re actually trying ahead to creating some greater strides ultimately of the season and ending on a excessive.”
After 4 stops on the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Canadian ladies are ranked tenth among the many 14 groups with 16 factors. The staff’s greatest end was eighth place in Cape Town, South Africa.
New Zealand, the winner of three of the tournaments, leads the standings with 78 factors.
The HSBC Canada Sevens will likely be held at BC Place Stadium March 3-5. It would be the eighth time the event has been staged in Vancouver however the first with a full slate of 12 ladies’s groups competing concurrently the boys.
“It’s positively one thing the staff has been trying ahead to,” mentioned Apps. “It’s actually particular as a result of it is such a younger staff with the ability to showcase the rugby we have now been engaged on.
“I’ve a lot perception on this program and what we’re doing. It’s actually going to be an honour to have the ability to do it in entrance of family and friends.”
The Canadian ladies completed seventh general in final yr’s world sevens sequence. They had been eighth in Dubai early within the season, then down the stretch positioned fifth enjoying at house in Langford, B.C., and completed sixth within the last occasion in Toulouse, France.
“We needed to get a podium end this yr and we’re nonetheless trying to do this,” mentioned Apps, a 24-year-old scrum half from Lindsay, Ont. “We had been anticipating some greater outcomes this yr, particularly with the coaching we have executed.
“Clearly we have now quite a lot of work that also must be executed, a number of studying going ahead.”
‘We can flip the season round’
Co-captain Breanne Nicholas mentioned the Canadians will feed off the vitality of the frenzied crowd that has packed BC Place for previous tournaments.
“We know what the house crowd looks like in Langford, so we’re much more amped to get to BC Place, the place we all know there will likely be an enormous crowd,” mentioned the 28-year-old hooker from Blenheim, Ont.
“It will likely be superior. We can flip the season round.”
The Canadian lineup will profit from a number of gamers coming back from damage, together with rising star Piper Logan.
Logan turned heads in her worldwide debut final yr as a part of the staff that completed fourth on the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. She additionally was a part of the staff that completed sixth on the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town.
The Calgary native, who performs for UBC, suffered a foot damage in November through the Thunderbirds’ Canada West championship win over the Victoria Vikes.
Logan was sidelined for eight weeks however had her first full observe Monday and has been given the inexperienced mild to play once more. Being pressured to look at because the staff struggled hasn’t been simple.
“It’s been a brand new expertise,” she mentioned. “You need to be on the market. It’s troublesome seeing the challenges they are going by means of and never with the ability to assist out.
“Loads of us are getting back from damage so it is going to be a brand new group, which will likely be thrilling for us.”
Logan brings some versatility to the Canadian lineup by with the ability to play a number of completely different positions.
Apps likes what she has seen from Logan previously.
“Piper is an unpredictable participant,” she mentioned. “She brings quite a lot of pace and quite a lot of energy each defensively and offensively.
“She’s actually an thrilling participant to look at.”
Apps believes having women and men enjoying on the identical event advantages the game.
“With the boys’s and girls’s sevens program in Canada, it is good to have extra cohesion,” she mentioned.
“Internationally, ladies with the ability to play alongside the boys on the identical event, equality throughout the board is de facto essential. Having extra tournaments with them goes to be nice publicity for the ladies’s sport and for sevens generally.”
