Canadian success on firm foundations

Canada are the new World Champions!

No, that is not a premature headline from next weekend but recognition of another success for the Candian development programme as they lifted the World University Sevens title last weekend.

The "2014 International University Sports Federation (FISU) Women's Rugby Sevens Championship" (to give it its full, rather long, name) was played in Sao Jose de Campos, Brazil over three days, starting on Friday afternoon (8th August) and reaching its climax on Sunday. Canada had lost their opening pool game against France, but went on to win all of their other fixtures, including the final where they again met France, this time coming back from behind to win 19-12

Team coach Sandro Fiorino was quick to highlight the success of Canada's development programme:

"The future is very bright in Canada," he said Fiorino. This medal shows that our pathway for women’s rugby is working, Young athletes are excited to play for Canada. Yesterday’s performance at the Women's Rugby World Cup in France is just the tip of an iceberg. We have a lot of great players."The latest triumph in Brazil, and Canada's success in France so far, are just the latest results of a programme that dates back to before the 2010 World Cup - even perhaps before the 2006 tournament, which Canada hosted - but is now beginning to bear fruit in abundance.

Canada have hosted summer international tournaments for over a decade, and were one of the first countries to realise the opportunity that the inclusion of sevens in Olympics would provide, forming not just a nations sevens squad but also the "Maple Leafs" development team, which has met with success on both sides of the Atlantic from the Amsterdam sevens to NACRA tournaments in the Caribbean. Several players in the University squad have already met with success in one of these squads.

The national sevens team were runners up in the Women's Rugby World Cup Sevens last year and third in the World Series last season, while both the senior and U-20 teams won the Nations Cup in 2013 - for the age group team at least the nearest thing to a world cup as it included all of the major international U20 squads with the exception of only France.,

Rugby Canada seize every opportunity to test players of all ages. The next challenge, for the youngest players in the programme, will be the Youth Olympics next weekend where they will take on Australia, United States, Spain, Tunisia and hosts China. This all comes on the back of a strong schools programme where girls rugby has a profile that now matches the boys.

The success of the national women's team is not only a result of all this work behind the scenes, but it also creates a virtuous circle with the success feeding back to the grass roots, encouraging even more development. Not only are girls enthused to take up the game because of the positive role models, but coaches and provincial organisers start to target girls rugby, and universities offer scholarships to the most promising players.

Talking to School Sport Canada a year after England 2010, Brian Lynch from the British Columbia Secondary Schools’ Rugby Union has been involved in provincial schools rugby for over 20 years, and has seen a dramatic move from a sport traditionally much preferred by boys to one where female athletes are actualy starting to become more involved in rugby than boys, and at a faster pace.

“When I first started, girls didn’t play rugby at all. So you can see how significant the growth has been, because now high schools have all girl rugby teams,” he says.

Shaun Allen, coordinator at Rugby Ontario, added “We look at women’s rugby very positively here, as our Canadian women’s rugby team is significantly better worldwide [than the men's team]. We definitely want to improve and encourage participation by our female student athletes."

World University Championships: Results

POOL ABrazil – Morocco : 50-0Japan – Belgium : 20-7Brazil – Belgium : 29-0Japan – Morocco: 55-0Belgium – Morocco : 50-7Brazil – Japan : 7-17POOL BGreat Britain – Chine : 10-21France – Canada : 19-12Great Britain – Canada : 0-38France – Chine : 45-0Canada - Chine : 49-5Great Britain – France : 0-40QUARTER FINALSM29 : Japan – Great Britain : 10-14M30 : Brazil – Chine : 24-0M31 : France – Morocco : 63-0M32 : Canada – Belgium : 17-10SEMI-FINALS (PLATE)M33 : Japan  – Belgium 5-10M34 : China  – Morocco 52-0SEMI-FINALS (CUP)M33 : Great Britain – Canada 5-37M34 : Brazil – France 15-17FINALSPlaces 7-8 : Japan  – Morocco : Forfeit by MoroccoPlate (Places 5-6): Belgium – China 17-21Places 3-4 : Great Britain – Brazil 5-17Final (places 1-2) : Canada  – France  26-17

Canada's squad:Arielle Dubissette-Borrice - Toronto Scottish (Toronto, ON); Bianca Farella – Town of Mount Royal RFC (Montreal, QC); Paige Farries – Druid RF (Red Deer, AB); Deanna Foster – McGill University (Caledon, ON); Emmanuela Jade – York University (Guelph, ON); Sara Kaljuvee – Toronto Scottish (Ajax, ON); Katie McNally – Guelph RFC (Guelph, ON); Breanne Nicholas – Kent Havoc RFC (Blenheim, ON); Nadia Popov – Aurora Barbarians (Newmarket, ON); Natasha Smith – Barrhaven Scottish (Ottawa, ON)Alex Tessier – Montreal Barbarians (Saint-Clotilde-de-Horton, QC); Natasha Watcham-Roy – University of Ottawa (Gatineau, QC)

Other published squads:

Great Britain:Bianca Blackburn (Gloucs);Natalie Ekweogwu (Loughborough);Megan Ellery (Durham);Devon Holt (Gloucs);Rebecca Hughes (UWE);Sarah Law (Edinburgh);Sophie Lee (Durham);Siobhan Longdon-Hughes (Cardiff Met);Charlie Notman (Plymouth);Emily Scott (Brunel);Jo Brown (Teesside);Sarah Foster (Cardiff Met)

France:Camille Imart; Lenaig Corson; Joanna Sainlo; Camille Cabalou; Lina Guerin; Johanna Lelong; Camille Boudaud; Pauline Rayssac; Margot Marie; Marie Menanteau; Lauriane Lissar; Anne Cecile Ciofani.