ARIMA — Canada survived changing weather conditions at the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens on Saturday, easily dispatching Bermuda before Mother Nature interrupted its game against Barbados.
It was 31 C, feeling like 38, for the Canadian men's late-morning 38-0 romp over Bermuda. But the conditions changed drastically for its early-afternoon Pool A finale against Barbados, which was played in a downpour and high winds.
The weather was so bad that play was halted with Canada leading 10-0 in the first half at Larry Gomes Stadium thanks to tries from Josiah Morra and Alex Russell.
Tournament organizers subsequently decided to call off the match, designating it as a 0-0 draw. Bermuda and Guyana then took to a wet field after a delay of more than an hour.
Relegated from the elite HSBC SVNS circuit in June, the Canadians need to win the eight-team Tier 1 competition at the RAN 7s in Arima, some 30 kilometres east of Port of Spain, to join World Rugby's second-tier World Challenger Series.
The top four teams from the three-event Challenger Series will face off against the bottom four from the HSBC SVNS at the SVNS World Championships May 3-4 in Carson, Calif., in a promotion/relegation playoff.
So far so good for the tournament-favourite Canadians, who opened Friday by blanking Guyana 29-0.
The Pool A winner will face the fourth-place team in Pool B (Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago) in Sunday's quarterfinal.
Captain Elias Hancock and Morra both scored two tries against Bermuda and Cooper Coats and Ethan Hager had one apiece for Canada, which led 17-0 at the break. Thomas Isherwood kicked three conversions.
The Canadian speed and power was too much for the Bermudians with Morra flooring a would-be tackler with a one-handed fend en route to his second try.
Bermuda lost 19-7 to Barbados in its opener Friday.
The Canadian men are coming off a disastrous 3-36-0 HSBC SVNS season that ended with a 22-14 loss to Spain with relegation on the line. It was a 29th straight defeat.
Canada, which finished eighth at the Tokyo Olympics, had been a core team on the top sevens circuit since 2012-13 and lifted the trophy in Singapore in 2017.
After being relegated, coach Sean White's team fell short in an Olympic repechage tournament in late June in Monaco, finishing fourth after losing 26-0 to eventual winner South Africa in the semifinals. The Blitzboks went on to claim bronze in Paris.
The 13-man roster for the RAN 7s includes six players who were part of the relegation playoff in Madrid: Hancock, Isherwood, Morra, Coats, Matt Oworu and David Richard.
The Canadian men are scheduled to play in an invitational men’s sevens tournament taking place at B.C. Place Stadium alongside the HSBC SVNS Vancouver stop in February.
The Canadian women, meanwhile, are scheduled to leave Sunday for Dubai and the opening stop of the 2005 HSBC SVSN season. The Olympic silver-medallist Canadians open play next Saturday against Japan before facing Brazil and Olympic champion New Zealand.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 23
The Canadian Press
