Rugby Canada – Canada’s Women’s Olympic Rugby Sevens Team rallied after quarter-final defeat to Australia to overcome Great Britain 33-10 and create history as first-ever Bronze Medal winners at Deodoro Stadium 

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Canada’s Olympic Women’s Rugby Sevens Team made history on Monday, winning a bronze medal in the inaugural Olympic rugby sevens tournament with an impressive 33-10 win over Great Britain.

The bronze was the first medal ever handed out in rugby sevens at the Olympics with the sport making its debut in Rio de Janiero. Australia will play rivals New Zealand in the gold medal match later on Monday. Earlier in the day, Canada dropped their semi-final match against top-ranked Australia 17-5, while New Zealand defeated Great Britain 25-7 in the other semi-final. It was the second time in as many days that Canada and Great Britain played each other as both teams met on day two action in pool play, with Great Britain taking top spot in Pool C with a 22-0 win.

What Head Coach John Tait said:

“I’m just really proud of the girls. I’m so happy to have a medal, to walk away with something. The girls showed Canada how good they really are and this medal means a lot to me. This is such a great game and so many people are going to be switched onto it now. Hopefully that’s going to keep us competitive and have us on the podium again in 2020.

CANADA 5-17 AUSTRALIA (Semi-finals)

Australia showed why they are the top seed in Rio with a clinical 17-5 win over Canada. It was always going to take a great performance from Canada to compete with the world’s best, but the Canadians made some uncharacteristic mistakes and Australia was able to capitalize on that.

Handling errors and penalties hurt Canada has Australia controlled much of the possession throughout the match. Australia opened the scoring three minutes in to go up 7-0 but Canada was unable to keep it a one-score match at halftime as Australia scored after the first half hooter sounded to take a 12-0 lead into the break. After Australia extended the lead to 17-0, Charity Williams picked up her first try of the Olympics as she touched down with 30 seconds left to cut the lead to 17-5.

CANADA 33-10 GREAT BRITAIN (Bronze medal)

Canada will be coming home with an Olympic medal after beating Great Britain 33-10 to win the first-ever bronze medal in Olympic rugby sevens history. After losing 22-0 to Great Britain in pool play on Sunday, Canada was able to flip the script on Monday with the stakes much higher.

Canada dominated play from the opening kickoff, showing their counterparts that whatever happened on Sunday was not to be repeated. Karen Paquin opened the scoring three minutes in to give Canada an early 7-0 lead.

After Great Britain responded with a try to cut the lead to 7-5, Canada made it 14-5 through a Ghislaine Landry try. After Great Britain was shown a yellow card, Bianca Farella touched down in the corner to extend the Canadian lead to 19-5.

Kelly Russell added Canada’s fourth try of the half as the team took a 26-5 lead into the break. With the match being played 10 minutes a half, the game was very much undecided, but Canada held much of the possession once again, limiting the Great Britain attack. Canada finally conceded a try midway through the half as Great Britain cut the lead to 26-10, but Landry added some insurance with her second try of the match, sealing Canada’s victory.

Canada’s Roster for the 2016 Rio Olympics (Name, club, hometown):

Britt Benn – (Guelph Redcoats) Napanee, ON

Hannah Darling – (Peterborough Pagans) Warsaw, ON

Bianca Farella – (Town of Mont Royal RFC) Montreal, QC

Jen Kish – (Edmonton Rockers) Edmonton, AB

Ghislaine Landry – (Toronto Scottish) Toronto, ON 

Megan Lukan – (Unattached) Barrie, ON

Kayla Moleschi – (Williams Lake Rustlers) Williams Lake, BC

Karen Paquin – (Club de Rugby Quebec) Quebec City, QC

Kelly Russell – (Toronto Nomads) Bolton, ON

Ashley Steacy – (Lethbridge Rugby Club), Lethbridge, AB

Natasha Watcham-Roy – (Hull Volant) Gatineau, QC

Charity Williams – (Markham Irish) Toronto, ON

Canada’s Coaching Staff:

Meaghan Howat – Manager

John Tait – Head Coach

Sandro Fiorino – Assistant Coach

Sandeep Nandhra – Athletic Therapist

Matt Tyler – Athletic Therapist

Tyler Goodale – Strength & Conditioning

Callum Morris – Analyst

Kirsten Barnes – Mental Performance Coach

Canada’s 2016 Rio Olympics Schedule:

Day 1 – August 6

Canada 45-0 Japan

Canada 38-0 Brazil

Day 2 – August 7

Canada 0-22 Great Britain

Canada 15-5 France (Quarterfinals)

Day 3 – August 8

Canada 5-17 Australia (Semifinals)

Canada 33-10 Great Britain (Bronze medal)

About Rugby Canada

Rugby Canada is the national governing  body  of  the  sport  of  rugby  union  in Canada.  Rugby Football has a  long  history  in  Canada  dating  back  to  its  initial appearance in the 1860s. Since 1974, Rugby Canada has been a permanent fixture on  the  global  rugby  scene,  including  trips  to  each  of  the eight Men’s Rugby  World Cups and seven Women’s Rugby World Cups. As a regular on the Men’s and Women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, Canada continues to climb the world rankings and challenge the dominant rugby nations in both versions of the game.

To support the growth of rugby at the grass-roots level and to ensure there are elite programs for prospering young rugby players to become involved with, Rugby Canada has put an emphasis on developing its junior programs.  Our goal is to develop and train competitive teams for the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Tokyo, Japan respectively, the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup in Ireland, 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens in USA and 2019 Men’s Rugby World Cup in Japan. 

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Website: www.rugbycanada.ca 

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Bryan Kelly  I  Manager, Communications and Media Relations  I  Rugby Canada  I  3024 Glen Lake Road  I Langford, British Columbia, Canada V9B 4B4  I  Tel. 250.418.8998 ext. 314  I  Fax 250.386.3810  I Cell. 250.216.5272 | bkelly@rugbycanada.ca I www.rugbycanada.ca