Double Dutch 7s for Canada
Canada’s development team – the Maple Leafs – completed a perfect weekend for Canada in Amsterdam yesterday when their lifted the elite women’s Sliver Pier trophy just a day after their senior team had taken the Women’s Sevens World Series for the first time.
Published by John Birch, May 25th, 2015
3 minute read
Of the 32 teams who entered the Pier on Saturday, 16 remained in contention on the second day, including 11 national teams (or national teams in all but name) and development squads. There were, however, five standout teams from Day One who were always most likely to be in contention for the title – Wales, Ireland, Maple Leafs, France Development, and (mainly) Australian 2014 champions Tribe.
Wales flew through Pool 1, including a big 22-0 win over fancied outsiders (and previous Amsterdam winners) Wooden Spoon. France Development (mainly U20s, but with a couple of the younger national squad players) joined them with good wins over Finland (32-0) and Germany (21-0), though they were pushed hard by the mainly Swedish invitational team West Coast Vikings (12-7).
Ireland were even more decisive with three big wins over Switzerland 43-0, Scotland (technically “Scottish Select”) 38-0 and Amazonas (Brazil’s development squad) 31-0.
Who they would meet their semi-final came down to a titanic battle between Maple Leafs and Tribe. The Canadians had been slightly more impressive than Tribe in their other pool games, with a big 57-0 win over Poland and 54-12 against the Czech Republic, but the champions were determined not to give up their crown and pushed the Maple Leafs all the way before losing out 21-19.
Unsurprisingly the two semi-finals were both decided by single scores, with Ireland just making theh final over Wales 19-14, and Maple Leafs just getting home against their French development counterparts 12-7.
The final itself was a very tense affair, but in the end perhaps it was the young Canadians greater tournament experience – especially in finals (they had also won in Hong Kong last time out) – that was the difference as they came home 24-12.
The Canadian team’s success was also an indication that their planning goes well beyond 2016. A young team with several teenagers – such as Victoria’s Caroline Crossley, Calgary’s Chanelle Edwards-Challenger, Toronto’s Charity Williams – who “were all impressive” according to senior team coach John Tait said, who had the unusual pleasure of sitting back and watching, leaving everything to reserve team coach Morgan Williams.