Canada’s women’s sevens rugby team, with Williams Lake’s Kayla Moleschi, defeated the host U.S. side 31-7 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas to finish with a bronze medal at the HSBC USA Sevens.
With the result, Canada earned 16 points in the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series standings where they remain in third place.
“Pretty pleased overall,” Canadian head coach John Tait said. “We played some really good rugby. We just made a few too many mistakes against Australia and they showed their class and why they are gold medal Olympic champions.
“They punish your for errors. We kind of gifted them a couple soft ones early on. I was really pleased with the way they came back and responded with a really good performance against the USA.”
New Zealand gained another 20 points in Las Vegas with their second tournament win of the season as they continue to lead the series standings with 56 points. Australia stay in second place on 50 points after losing to New Zealand in the cup final, while Canada now have 46 points and a 10-point cushion on fourth place Fiji.
Canada advanced to the USA Sevens cup semifinals after an impressive 33-0 win over France early Saturday morning but was eliminated from cup contention with a 26-19 loss to Australia in the semifinals. It was the second straight tournament where the teams met in the cup semifinals after Canada beat Australia last month before winning capturing the Sydney Sevens.
After finishing in sixth place to open the season in Dubai, Canada has finished first and third in the last two events. The quarterfinal win over France was Canada’s seventh-straight win on the series, their longest win streak in HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series history.
Canadian captain Ghislaine Landry finished the tournament first in scoring with 66 points. Landry moved into first place all-time in HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series scoring with 706 points while also moving into first in series scoring this season with 131 points. 18-year-old Caroline Crossley picked up her first ever series try.
