UNDEFEATED DAY ONE SEES HISTORIC OLYMPIC RUGBY SEVENS TEAM THROUGH TO QUARTER-FINALS
Rugby Canada – Canada’s Women’s Olympic Sevens Team to face Great Britain in final pool match to decide who advances to quarter-finals as top seed in pool C; Watch LIVE on CBC & TSN
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Canada’s Women’s Sevens Olympic Team finished day one with a perfect 2–0 record to open the historic Rugby Sevens action at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games with a 38–0 win over hosts Brazil. Canada couldn’t have asked for a better start to their inaugural Olympic Games, as they opened their 2016 Rio campaign with a clinical 45-0 win over Japan at Deodoro Stadium.
With the two wins, Canada qualified for the quarterfinals. They have yet to concede a point in two matches, outscoring their opponents 83-0. Their quarterfinal matchup will depend on how they do tomorrow in their final pool match against Great Britain. Both teams have two wins and the winner will top the group, earning a higher seed for the quarterfinals.
What Head Coach John Tait said:
(On day one) “We kept a clean sheet, worked hard in defence. I don’t think we defended as well as we could have. We had a few line-breaks through. Some over pursuit, probably a little bit too much energy in defence and not enough connection but, overall a pretty good day one.
(On match vs Great Britain) “Another familiar team that we have split results with this season. They’re a big physical side and we’ll look to match that and if we can take their physicality away, I think we should win that.”
What captain Jen Kish said:
(On day one) “We had a lot of nerves going into this. You don’t know what to expect. Even though Japan and Brazil and Japan are ranked below us, you never know. If you make too many mistakes they can walk away with the win. We channeled those nerves and as you can see we really preformed and we played as a whole-twelve, we used all our bench and that’s something special because not a lot of teams have a full-twelve squad.”
CANADA 45-0 JAPAN
While most of the other teams looked nervous in their first ever Olympic match, Canada looked anything but, winning comfortably 45-0 over Japan. From the opening kickoff to the final whistle, Canada dominated every facet of the match, punishing Japan for their mistakes.
Canada’s all-time leading try scorer Ghislaine Landry opened the scoring less than 30 seconds in, giving Canada an early 7-0 lead. After Kayla Moleschi’s try gave Canada a 14-0 lead, Bianca Farella made it 19-0 after she found some space on the outside.
Landry picked up her second try of the half to give the Canadians a 26-0 lead at the break. Just over a minute into the second half, Farella picked up her second try of the match as Canada extended the lead to 31 points.
Britt Benn and Natasha Watcham-Roy added two late tries for Canada. Landry had three conversions in the match, finishing with 16 points while Kelly Russell also kicked two conversions.
CANADA 38-0 BRAZIL
Canada made it two from two on day one at Deodoro stadium, with another impressive win, this time a 38-0 victory over hosts Brazil. Canada once again scored inside 30 seconds, with Karen Paquin touching down with her first try of the tournament to give Canada an early 7-0 lead.
After captain Jen Kish scored a try, Kayla Moleschi found a hole in the Brazilian defence and Canada found themselves with a 19-0 lead midway through the opening half. Paquin would add her second try of the half as Canada entered half time with a 26-0 lead. Substitute Bianca Farella would add two second half tries, giving her four in the opening two matches as Canada cruised to a comfortable 38-0 win.
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 vs. Great Britain – 11:30am ET/8:30am PT
TBD (Quarterfinals
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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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