Williams Lake’s Kayla Moleschi and Canada’s Women’s Rugby Sevens team have two wins and one loss heading into this afternoon’s Olympic quarterfinal match against France.
Canada went unbeaten on day one of the competition Saturday mauling Japan 45-0, then shutting out Olympic host Brazil, 38-0, before dropping a tough 22-0 defeat against Great Britain Sunday morning.
The team’s comfortable win over Japan saw Canada dominate every facet of the match, punishing Japan for their mistakes.
Canada’s all-time leading try scorer Ghislaine Landry opened the scoring less than 30 seconds in giving Canada an early 7-0 lead. After Moleschi’s try gave Canada a 14-0 lead, Bianca Farella made it 19-0 after she founds some space on the outside.
Landry picked up her second try of the half to give the Canadians a 26-0 lead at the break. Just over a minute into the second half, Farella picked up her second try of the match as Canada extended its lead to 31 points.
Britt Benn and Natasha Watcham-Roy added two late tries for Canada. Landry had three conversions in the match, finishing with 16 points, while Kelly Russell also kicked two conversions.
In the team’s second win of day one at Deodoro Stadium and with another impressive win, Canada once again scored inside 30 seconds with Karen Paquin touching down with her first try of the tournament to give Canada an early 7-0 lead.
After captain Jen Kish scored a try, Moleschi found a hole in the Brazilian defence and Canada found themselves with a 19-0 lead midway through the opening half.
Paquin would add her second try of the half as Canada entered half time with a 26-0 lead.
Farella would add two second half tries, giving her four in the opening two matches as Canada cruised to the 38-0 win.
“We kept a clean sheet [on day one], worked hard in defence,” said Canadian head coach John Tait. “I don’t think we defended as well as we could have. We had a few line-breaks through. Some over pursuit, probably a little bit too much energy in defence and not enough connection but, overall, a pretty good day one.”
With the loss to Great Britain Canada finished second in Pool C and will now face France this afternoon in the Olympic quarterfinal.
Canada holds a 9-2 record all-time on the Women’s Sevens World Series against France and has outscored them 212-63.
The quarterfinal match against France takes place at 1:30 p.m. on TSN and online at www.cbc.ca/olympics.
