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Thu, 2 March 2023

World's Best Players in Vancouver for Canada Sevens

(02/03/23)  The worlds best rugby sevens players are in Vancouver for the HSBC Canada Sevens which takes place this weekend, from 3-5 March.

The 28 mens and womens team captains gathered on Wednesday on the traditional territory of Tsleil-Waututh Nation for the traditional photo shoot ahead of kick off on Friday.

It is the first time that the womens Series join the men at BC Place Stadium as the race for Series glory and Olympic qualification heats up.

New Zealands Black Ferns Sevens and All Blacks Sevens lead the current Series standings and arrive in confident mood having won the last three womens events and two mens events respectively.

If New Zealand's women's team reaches the cup finals in Vancouver this weekend, they will be the second nation to officially qualify for Paris 2024 after France, who have a spot secured as hosts.

The 28 mens and womens team captains gathered on Wednesday on the traditional territory of Tsleil-Waututh Nation for the traditional photo shoot ahead of kick off on Friday. Click to enlarge.
The 28 mens and womens team captains gathered on Wednesday on the traditional territory of Tsleil-Waututh Nation for the traditional photo shoot ahead of kick off on Friday.

Its been amazing being in a new city in Canada, we love coming here and to be able to play at BC Place we went to the stadium yesterday and had a run around against Canada its an amazing stadium and were looking forward to the weekend, said Black Ferns womens captain. Sarah Goss. I have only seen that [New Zealand can qualify for Paris 2024] in the media and we havent actually talked about that as a team. Were just trying to get better and better as the tournament goes along and were very happy with how were sitting but we probably wont be too happy unless we continue that momentum weve already built.

The 2023 Series is shaping up to be the most competitive in history with the prize of Olympic Games Paris 2024 qualification on offer for the top four womens and mens teams in the 2023 Series standings, while hosts France have pre-qualified for next year's pinnacle event in the nations capital.

The mens Series has seen five different gold medal winners (Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and South Africa) in the six rounds to date.

New Zealand sit firmly on top of the women's leader board with 78 points, having won the last three tournaments in Sydney, Hamilton and Cape Town. Australia, the only other nation to have won a tournament in Dubai, are tied with USA at 66 points each. The Americans join New Zealand as the only nation to have medalled at every event this season, while France picked up their first bronze medal in Sydney.

The stakes couldnt be higher at the bottom end of the mens Series this season as well. Following the penultimate event in Toulouse, the 15th ranked team will be relegated to the 2024 Sevens Challenger Series while the 12th through 14th ranked teams will face off against the Sevens Challenger Series 2023 winner for the 12th and final position on the 2024 Series.

Back-to-back tournaments are always tough, and with the three-day tournament it means one less training day, but we love coming to Vancouver its always a great crowd so were excited to push on from last week. For us it was great to get three wins in the pool but disappointing to not win anything on day two, so were really looking forward to putting in another good performance this weekend, said Harry McNulty, Ireland Captain. Every tournament you have to take into consideration how hard the pools are because its been crazy at the moment when theres nine teams who can qualify for the four Olympic spots at the end of the season. So were going tournament-to-tournament in terms of getting our preparation right but also every tournament means youre one step closer to the end of the season so we need to make sure we get the most amount of points as we can.

The mens pools for Vancouver have HSBC Los Angeles winners New Zealand in Pool A alongside Cape Town champions Samoa, Spain and the United States. Pool B includes silver medal winners Argentina with South Africa France and Japan. Bronze medal winners Fiji will meet Great Britain, Uruguay and Kenya in Pool C, while Australia lead Pool D alongside Ireland, Canada and Chile.

The womens pools for Vancouver have New Zealand, Fiji, Great Britain and Colombia in Pool A. Reigning Series champions Australia will be looking to bounce back in Pool B against France, Japan and Spain. Pool C sees the USA together with Ireland, hosts Canada and Brazil.

The action begins at 09:15 local time (GMT-8) on Friday, beginning three days of action-packed world-class rugby sevens, which concludes with the finals on Sunday evening.

Rugby pictures: Pictures from 2019 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures from 2018 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures from 2017 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures from 2016 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Pictures of Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2015, Pictures of the Asia Rugby Sevens Olympic Games Qualifier in Hong Kong, Pictures of Singha Thailand Sevens 2015, Pictures from the 2013 British & Irish Lions Tour in Hong Kong, Pictures of Hong Kong Sevens 2014, Pictures of Hong Kong Sevens 2013, Pictures of Chartis Cup 2012 and Pictures of Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2012.

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