Ruggers look to impress

Photo: The Canadian Press

The Canadian rugby sevens men's team had its moment in the home spotlight last month. Now it is the women's turn.

And John Tait's squad hopes it has learned from the mistakes of last year, when the women faded on Day 2 of their HSBC Women's Sevens Series inaugural tournament on home soil. After going unbeaten the opening day before a sellout crowd of 3,400 at Westhills Stadium in suburban Langford, the Canadians lost two of their next three matches and finished sixth.

For many of the players, it was the first time performing before family and friends. The pressure of playing at home took a toll.

"We look back at it and said there were a lot of really good individual performances that day. But individual performances don't get the results we want. Team wins do," said Tait.

"That'll be the focus this weekend — to really perform as a unit on the field and make sure that when we have the ball, we use it as a seven and not ones and twos," he added.

Canada, currently third in the overall standings, is in Pool C with No. 4 England, No. 10 Japan and No. 12 Ireland. The Canadians are 0-2 against the English this season and trail 8-7 in all-time meetings. Canada has never lost to Ireland (4-0 all time, including 2-0 this season) or Japan (Canada won 52-5 in their only previous meeting, in 2013).

Australia, which won the three previous tournaments this season, could clinch the overall title this weekend depending on results.

Canada's Hannah Darling says the women are "pushing last year aside."

"We definitely learned from it and built off of it," said the 19-year-old from Warsaw, Ont. "So we're definitely looking to get a better result. But we're just in a different mindset, especially coming off Atlanta last week. We didn't get the exact result that we wanted but we played well as a team."

Darling will have no shortage of supporters on hand this weekend. Her parents, neighbours and grandmothers are coming out to see her play.

Tait's team did get a massive dose of dealing with the home crowd during last summer's Pan American Games, when both Canadian men and women won gold.

It's been a slow start to the season with injuries playing a part. Canada finished sixth in Dubai, second in Sao Paulo and fourth in Atlanta. The Canadians were tied 14-14 with Australia in the U.S. tournament's Cup semifinal but yielded two tries and lost 26-14.

"We had a couple of mental lapses," said Tait.

There was more disappointment when the Canadians lost 26-12 to England in the third-place match.

Tait gets Britt Benn back from injury this week but loses Emmanuela Jada, who sprained her knee in her Series debut in Atlanta.

Elissa Alarie (knee), Magali Harvey (leg fracture), Ashley Steacy (knee) and Natasha Watcham-Roy (knee) are all still out but are nearing a return although Steacy, with a June return date, will be the last to come back.

Langford is the fourth event of the five-stop women's circuit, which wraps up May 28-29 in Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Unlike the Canadian men, the women have already qualified for the Rio Olympics by virtue of their second-place finish in last season's overall standings. Liam Middleton's men's side will bid to join them in Rio via a last-ditch qualifying tournament in Monaco in June.

The Olympic rugby competition is scheduled for Aug. 6-11.

The more established men's World Sevens Series drew a total of 64,000 fans over two days at B.C. Place Stadium. The women's event could shift to Vancouver in the future to combine the two tournaments into one three-day event.

The Canadian men finished ninth last month in Vancouver, despite posting a 5-1 record. The men are at a World Series event in Singapore this weekend.