DUBAI, United Arab Emirates-The young Canadian teams got the upper hand in the Dubai Sevens on Friday, losing their five matches.
The Canadians, who have completed 11 last week at the same venue at the tournament opening of the season HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, have lost, 38-14 against the USA, 24-17 against Australia and 26-14 against Kenya.
The Canadians, who finished seventh in the opening match, were overcome 52-0 by last year’s winners Australia before bowing out to Spain 12-10 in a after try by Lea Ducher.
Eight different Australians have played test matches against Canada. Captain Breanne Nicholas and Olivia de Couveur have listed the Canadian tests against Spain.
Canada continues to field inexperienced teams after a major staff turnover following the Tokyo Olympics, where Canadian men finished eighth and women ninth.
The men had to deal with a difficult pool. The Americans finished second to South Africa last weekend, while Australia finished fifth and Kenya seventh.
Theo Sauder retook the Canadian captaincy with Jake Thiel due to a concussion last week.
Thomas Isherwood and Elias Ergas marked tests for Canada against the United States and Ergas showed his speed in a after attempt under the posts.
Josiah Morrah has passed two attempts and Sauder has added an easy defeat against Australia. Brennig Provost and Isherwood have scored tests against Kenya.
In the men’s quarter-finals on Saturday, Australia will face Ireland, Argentina will face Great Britain, the United States will face France and South Africa will face Kenya. The South Africans bowed out 3-0-0 on Friday, extending their record winning streak to 21 games.
“Since the thing is with us at the top, everyone wants to come to us, but as a system we have stayed together and we have done it,” said J. C. Pretorius of South Africa. “We love Dubai, it’s the same time as South Africa.”
The Canadian men will face Olympic champions Fiji in the semifinals for ninth place.
The Pacific Islanders had a rare rest day, losing to France and Spain before returning to beat Argentina. It was Spain’s first win against Fiji and the second for Spain.
It was only the second time in the history of the series that Fiji missed the quarter-finals of the Cup (Dubai was the only other time). Fiji have brought a young team to Dubai, with 10 players making their series debuts last week.
The Canadians finish the game on Saturday against Russia and Brazil. Australia and Fiji, last week’s finalists, posted a 3-0-0 record in the women’s event on Saturday and finished at the top of their hen after the first day.
While the first event in Dubai was held without fans, the stands were open on Friday.
The tournaments in Dubai do not include the men’s and women’s teams of New Zealand and the men’s team of Samoa due to travel problems related to the recent times.
