A first tournament win for England since 2013, Australia’s perfect start to the season comes to an end, thrilling tries and a fantastic atmosphere – the fourth round of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Canada had it all.
The action, as always, was beamed around the world from the home of Rugby Canada in Langford, British Columbia, and there was plenty for commentators Scott Hastings and Sue Day to ponder after the penultimate round of the 2015-16 series.
“It was a really good performance from England in the final,” said Day, the former England sevens and 15s captain after the Red Roses ran out 31-14 winners over New Zealand in the Cup final on Sunday.
“To score that many points against a New Zealand team is great. It was such a fantastic final wasn’t it? The first half especially – it was end-to-end stuff. A top game and a great advert for our sport.”
After the success of last year’s event in Langford, coupled with a sell-out men’s event in Vancouver in March, rugby is really on the rise in Canada and many watching from the stands this weekend were new to the sport.
“The quality of rugby was out of the top drawer,” said former Scotland international Hastings.
Exciting times with Rio looming large
“It’s interesting to speak to the locals here in British Columbia, who really admired the performance of all these athletes here – and that’s what these teams are … brilliant athletes.
“We’re now really within touching distance of the Rio Olympics Games, with just one more tournament to come in Clermont-Ferrand. It’s a really exciting time.”
England had given a taste of what was to come when they finished third in Atlanta a week earlier, led impressively by the returning Emily Scarratt, and with Rio 2016 less than four months away they are coming into form at the right time.
“Well if they are peaking, they’re peaking at the right time,” laughed Day, who played alongside some of the current squad before hanging up her boots.
“They played well in Atlanta last week but couldn’t really string together the right performances. But I’m not surprised (with this title). When you look at the quality of players such as Emily Scarratt, Danielle Waterman coming back from injury and (HSBC Player of the Final) Heather Fisher coming into serious form, there are some really good individuals in that team.
While England ended a three-year wait for a second Cup title – having won in Houston in the inaugural season of 2012-13 – the team to beat in 2015-16 had been Australia with victories in Dubai, Sao Paulo and Atlanta for a perfect 60 points.
Coach Tim Walsh elected to rest a number of key players in Langford and give some promising youngsters their time in the spotlight and while that winning streak came to in Canada, they finished third to come within touching distance of a first ever overall series title.
But for Hastings it was France, who lost that third place play-off to Australia, turning heads of many this weekend, coming from 12-0 down to beat hosts Canada with a last play of their quarter-final and then going into down to New Zealand in extra time.
France on the rise
“I think we saw a different France this weekend – and gosh they were competitive against New Zealand,” admitted Hastings.
“It was only a Portia Woodman try in extra-time that denied them an opportunity in the final. They’re now heading for their own tournament next month in Clermont and are building very well.”
However for the home crowd in Langford, the focus was on Canada’s quarter-final loss and subsequent recovery to win the Plate with victory over Spain.
“Canada were really disappointing as I think everyone wanted to see the home side get to the final,” admitted Day. “It was a very close one against France and France did so well to come back from two scores down with a couple of minutes to go. But that’s sevens for you – you never know what’s going to happen until the final whistle!”
The HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series now takes a break until 28-29 May with a new stop in Clermont-Ferrand. Australia will arrive in France with 76 points, 12 more than New Zealand with England now third with 60 points after leapfrogging Canada.
“New Zealand coach Sean Horan has already said that people will remember 2016 for Rio,” added Hastings. “And this is the last hit-out for the teams so, in many respects, they’ll want to go in with a settled team, get a settled performance and then face into June and July, which essentially becomes an eight-week training block for Rio.”
The pools and schedule for the last round of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Clermont will be announced in due course. All the action will be streamed live on worldrugby.org and fans can click here to find out where they can watch.
