Canada's Women's Sevens Head Coach, John Tait has named his team for the Paris leg of the HSBC Women's World Series Sevens.
With files from Rugby Canada Communications
The tournament kicks off on the 8th of June and will be the final stop on the series ahead of the much-anticipated World Cup Sevens in San Diego at the end of July.
Canada currently sit in 4th place on the World Series standings and know a big performance will be needed in Paris to bump hosts, France off the podium who have established a ten-point lead in the race for bronze. Australia and New Zealand find themselves in a two-horse race for top spot after breaking away from the pack with podium finishes in the last three events.
This will be the first time that the women’s event is hosted at Stade Jean-Bouin in conjunction with the men’s event after spending two years as a stand-alone event at Stade Gabriel Montpied in Clermont-Ferrand. France has been a happy hunting ground for Canada’s women in the past, winning gold in the first edition of the event in 2016 and bronze in 2017.
Only one change is seen in the line-up that placed fifth at Canada Sevens in Langford, BC two weeks ago. Brittany Benn returns from injury to replace Julia Greenshields who is unavailable. 26-year-old, Bianca Farella comes into the tournament as Canada’s in-form player, after scoring eight tries in Langford, including a hat-trick against Ireland. The powerful runner is now only four tries away from a century of five-pointers on the World Series and sits in fourth place on the ‘all-time most tries scored’ standings.
John Tait:
“The group is excited to get back on tour and have another go ahead of the World Cup. We’re going to try some new combinations in Paris with some of the girls coming back from injury, so I believe we’re in good shape. It’s the last stop ahead of the World Cup so it really gives us a chance to bend down what we’re doing in a team setting, we want to refine a couple of things that we’re doing on attack and build off of some of the defence we finished with in Langford.
The girls know that traditionally late in the season we start to hit our form a little bit more so that’s why we’ve generally had good finishes in France the last few years. It’s a new tournament and a new venue for us and it’s exciting to play alongside the men again. It doesn’t matter where we play, we’ve just got to make sure we turn up on defence and attack.”
Follow the action LIVE on https://www.cbc.ca/sports.
Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team for Paris Sevens:
1. Olivia Apps – Lindsay RFC (Lindsay, ON)
2. Britt Benn – Guelph Redcoats (Napanee, ON)
3. Pam Buisa – Ottawa Irish (Gatineau, QC)
4. Caroline Crossley – Castaway Wanderers (Victoria, BC)
5. Hannah Darling – Peterborough Pagans (Warsaw, ON)
6. Bianca Farella – Town of Mount Royal RFC (Montreal, QC)
7. Sara Kaljuvee – Toronto Scottish (Ajax, ON)
8. Ghislaine Landry – Toronto Scottish (Toronto, ON)
9. Kayla Molschi – Williams Lake Rustlers (Williams Lake, BC)
10. Breanne Nicholas – London St. Georges RFC (Blenheim, ON)
11. Natasha Watcham-Roy – Hull Volant (Gatineau, QC)
12. Charity Williams – Markham Irish (Toronto, ON)
Unavailable:
Julia Greenshields
Schedule:
TBC
