Canada cap perfect first day at Langford

Impressive crowds attended the opening day of the first WSWS Canadian 7s in Langford, British Columbia. A perfect day, and a winning home team obviously helped – but the size of the ground (similar to that in Amsterdam) also seemed perfect for competition. In retrospect it seems strange that it has taken three years for the WSWS to finally arrive in a venue where it is so well appreciated.

What is more the crowds stay in place for the whole day, enjoying all the games rather than concentrating on just those of the home team.

The top three teams in the series – New Zealand, Australia and Canada - survived the day unbeaten, though not without a few scares. New Zealand were momentarily surprised when Fiji, the powerful and fast Lavenia Tinai to the fore, reduced an early an early 12 point Fern lead to just three points midway through their opening game, but the Ferns selected the next gear and pulled away for a 31-14 win. Russia also put up a strong contest against the Canadians, but went down 26-15

In round two the Fijians, inspired by their performance against New Zealand, overturned a two-try England lead with the final play to draw 19-19 – Tinai again the hero – before one of the best matches of the day saw the United States just get the better of Russia 17-14.

In the key games of the final round, France got an early score against Australia – the only slip-up of the Kangaroos day – but the Australians were soon back on script with four tries that saw them as top seeds for Day 2.

England then put in one of the best performances of the series against New Zealand, with two Amy Wilson-Hardy tries giving them a 12-5 half-time lead, but the Ferns again found that extra level to dominate the second half with three tries to win 24-12.

But all this was mere bagatelle before the game of the day, fitting the final game, where Canada and the United States traded blow for blow. Canada took the first half 12-5 with a Landry final-play score, but tries from Megan Bonny and Lauren Doyle turned this round to give the States a 15-12 lead with less than three minutes left. Who would be Canada’s hero? Ghislaine Landry, the day's top scorer who completed her second hat-trick of the day to give Canada the game 19-15.

Group A

Group B

Group C