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Rugby Canada 7s win first Cup Final ever!


elvis15

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Rugby Canada has long been a secondary team (but competitive) on the World Rugby 7s tour, earning their spot as a core team and beating some of the top teams over the years. Well, this year they've shown they aren't just a secondary team anymore, advancing to their second cup final ever and winning over a high-powered US side! They've been showing good signs under their new head coach, former Samoa coach Damian McGrath, and despite a rough loss to Fiji on day one (described as a wake up call by players) after starting 2-0, they showed up on day two and beat New Zealand, then England, then the US to claim their first ever Cup victory!

 

Clearly I'm up at 6 in the morning making this. The tourney was in Singapore, so that means the time shift has them playing overnight. Watched the first two games of day one before getting to bed at 1am Friday and catching up Saturday morning to hear they'd lost to Fiji. That wasn't unexpected though as Fiji's been one of the best teams this year. Tonight I wasn't going to miss out: watched the first game around 11pm, went out for a bit before coming back and sleeping for an hour or so, then back up to watch them after 2am before trying to sleep again and then getting up for the 5:30am final! I can sleep when I'm dead, right?

 

But Canada played solidly all through day two. None of the teams they beat were pushovers (Eng, NZ and USA all sit 3rd, 4th and 5th overall respectively in the standings for the year) and Canada pushed all of them - hard. Only the US gave a real scare in the final when they scored three straight tries in quick succession to tie the game after a blazing Canadian start. But Canada refocused and scored next to put themselves up for good and once again pushed back on the US to force turnovers and not give them any open space.

 

There were many great moments throughout, and for fans of the game, I encourage you to check out the full game replays when they're loaded (probably later today, day one is all there) as the day two games were really something special!

http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/video/category/137

 

Here's some highlights:

 

 

 

Hirayama is from Richmond (his father played 7s for the National Team) and Douglas is from Abbotsford (his brother made his debut this weekend), so a strong local contingent stepping it up for Canada today. They've both been the strongest players for Canada this season with lots of contributions for other players as you can't win without everyone on the field playing their best.

 

 

I'm not sure I can get back to sleep now, but I'm going to try!

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Quarter final is up at the link I posted earlier, might not see the semi and final until later today or tomorrow.

 

Myself, I'm finally up after heading back to bed at 7 this morning (then getting up to let the dogs out and feed them an hour and a half later). Time to get my butt in gear and maybe I'll re-watch the games later in the week!

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