Canadian rugby star Ghislaine Landry has her sights set high as she looks forward to the next round of the Women’s Sevens Series in Brazil on 7-8 February.
The 26-year-old from Toronto played a starring role in the last tournament in Dubai, her tally of seven tries in six games helping Canada to finish third for the fourth series event in a row.
Landry refuses to settle for third best though, she wants Canada to consistently hit top form and claim a maiden tournament win before the 2014-15 series is out.
"We've finished third so many times that I'm starting to hate that number," Landry said jokingly. “Dubai was a good start to the series for us, but a disappointment in terms of consistency. We put in a lot of work over the off-season and were excited to back on the World Series and get the season started.
“In Dubai, we played some really good games and some really poor games. To stay at the top in the series, we need to be consistent and put together good performances on day two. We didn’t do that versus Australia (in the semi-final) and we paid the price.”
Australia played eventual winners New Zealand in the final, after a 28-7 semi-final win over Canada, continuing the dominance Oceania's top two nations enjoyed in 2013-14 when the Canadians were the only other team to reach a Cup final.
Second place in Atlanta last February – and a silver medal at Women’s Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 in Moscow – is the closest they have come to claiming a big prize, and the challenges do not get any easier with this World Series shaping up to be more competitive than ever.
No place to hide
With Olympic Games qualification on the line, an increase in the number of core teams to 11 and more players on full-time central contracts, Landry says the standard and intensity of play in Dubai was noticeably higher.
“Everyone put in a lot of hard yards in the off season and came out firing. It’s a big series this year with Olympic qualification and every team is looking to push to the top four,” said Landry, who is joint top of the series’ points-scoring charts with 45 after Dubai.
“In the past, it’s been tough for the invitational teams to compete over the two days. With 11 core teams, I think the gap will start to close and the competition will just keep getting harder and harder as the series goes forward.”
Next stop for Canada is Sao Paulo, where John Tait’s side has been drawn in Pool C alongside England, Russia and South Africa.
“We are expecting three tough matches on day one, but we aren’t shying away from that. We know to win a tournament we are going to have to beat the top teams. Having a tough pool will demand us to play high level rugby across all six games.”
So how have preparations been going?
“We spent a few weeks in San Diego and have scrimmages with the USA and Ireland, two teams that are improving every time we play them. Lots of games meant lots of minutes for players to push themselves and each other for spots. Everyone is training hard and looking forward to round two.”
Canada will field two debutants in Brazil with Nadia Popov (20) and Charity Williams (18) called up by coach John Tait. Williams was part of Canada's silver medal winning team at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing last year.
One other change to the squad since Dubai sees the recall of another teenager in Hannah Darling, who played in Guangzhou last season and captained that Youth Olympic Games team.
Photo: Ian Muir
