Canada has played host to not 1 but 2 major Sevens tournaments in recent weeks. The Sevens tour has been plagued by teams pulling out and as such has had to respond by inviting teams that would have otherwise not qualified for many of these tournaments. Major series players like New Zealand, Australia and Olympic champions Fiji have been absent from this season’s series.
While their absence has been more than noticeable it has given other nations a chance to show their stuff, including the Canadian team who have been performing very well. The real star of the series has been South Africa though, as the Blitzboks raced away to a comfortable final win in Vancouver. Their momentum has clearly shown no signs of slowing down after a successful weekend in Edmonton as well.
The Edmonton Sevens series played host to a number of quality teams like Great Britain, Kenya, the USA, Canada and of course South Africa. The tournament unfolded as you might have expected with GB, South Africa, Canada and Kenya all in the cup semi-finals. Great Britain took on a strong Canadian side in the semifinals as they played out a very tight future. Unfortunately for the home team, they could not pull a rabbit out of the hat against a strong Great Britain side as they fell to a 22-12 defeat. In the other semi-final South Africa faced a stern test from the powerhouse that is Kenyan 7’s. Kenya have really flexed their stuff this season but they could not find 5th gear against an incredibly talented South African 7’s side. The Kenyans were soundly beaten 33-7 by the final whistle.
The Canadians were hoping to at the very least snatch a bronze medal from the tournament in their 3rd/4th playoff against Kenya but it was not meant to be as a strong second half showing from the Kenyans completed their 33-14 rout of the Canadian side. In the final match of the day, arguably the 2 strongest sides in the series played out to an exciting final. Unfortunately for the British side, they fell to the Blitzboks just like everyone else in the tournament and were comfortably beaten 24-12 with the South African 7’s side never in any real danger of losing the match. Edmonton played out a fantastic 7’s tournament and will no doubt be asked to do so again in the future.
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