Canadian women set to face New Zealand in rugby 7s quarterfinals
Things won't get any easier as Canada (2-1) faces New Zealand (3-0) in a rugby quarterfinal Saturday night.
The Canadian women brought a roar from the hometown crowd by striking early with tries from Florence Symonds and Alysa Corrigan. Olivia Apps converted both to give Canada a 14-0 lead with just three minutes gone.
The Australians took over, using speed and muscle to punish the Canadians. Tia Hinds led with two tries and three converts.
"We came out with a lot of energy," said Symonds, a 22-year-old from Vancouver. "In the second half we were defending for a lot of phases. It gets tiring. We just couldn't hold them anymore."
Canada came into the tournament fifth in the overall women's standings with 32 points. New Zealand leads with 56, two more than Australia and eight ahead of third-place France.
"We've just got to focus on what we can fix and what we can control," Symonds said about the quarterfinal. "We just have to make sure we keep possession, defend better."
The Paris Olympic silver medallists opened the tournament Friday with a 26-19 win over Brazil, in a game where Charity Williams scored her 100th career try, and rolled over Spain 41-5 thanks to three tries and a conversion from Asia Hogan-Rochester.
The other quarterfinals will see the United States play Japan, Brazil face Fiji, and Britain square off with Australia.
The tournament features 12 men and 12 women's teams divided into three pools of four. The top two teams from each pool advance to the playoffs, along with the two best third-place teams.
Canada finished third in Pool A behind Brazil and Australia (2-1).
New Zealand (3-0) led Pool B followed by U.S. (2-1), China (1-2) and Ireland (0-3)
Britain and Japan were 2-1 in Pool C, followed by Fiji and France 1-2.
Canada's men are not playing on the elite rugby tour this season after being relegated last year.
The men are part of an invitational men's tournament and beat Trinidad and Tobago 50-0 Saturday.
In other women's matches Saturday, Britain defeated Fiji 24-21, France downed Japan 31-12, China stomped Ireland 29-0, and New Zealand blanked the U.S. 37-0.
The finals will be played Sunday.
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