It would be an understatement to say that the 2014-15 HSBC Sevens World Series hasn’t gone to plan for Canada’s Men’s Sevens team. In that sense, their weekend in Wellington was simply more of the same.
Opening the fourth leg of the series with a resounding 26-5 loss to the marauding All Blacks, the Canadians were off on the wrong foot from the very start. Of course, losing to the All Blacks on their home turf is nothing to fret over; the Kiwis operate at a level matched by few teams in the world.
The troubling thing was that the heavy defeat seemed to set the tone for the rest of the weekend.
In Canada’s second game—one which always looked like it would make or break their chances of advancing to the Cup quarterfinals—they were convincingly outplayed by England, the 27-5 loss banishing Liam Middleton’s squad to the lower echelons of yet another tournament.
Recovering in time to pummel recent series qualifiers Papua New Guinea 41-0 in their third and final match of the day offered little consolation.
If being outclassed by the All Blacks was largely to be expected, the loss to England was a more devastating blow to any broader hopes that Canada might re-find their form of last season.
Day 2 didn’t provide a lot of optimism on that front, either.
A 26-0 humbling at the hands of Portugal dashed Canada’s hopes of at least grabbing a Bowl victory; instead, they squeaked past a mediocre Japanese side, then produced their most complete performance in a 26-10 victory over Samoa to nab the Shield.
Suffice to say, competing for Bowls and Shields was not what anybody around the team had in mind after the heights they achieved in 2013-14.
Injuries have played a large role in the regression. All on its own, Canada’s list of walking wounded reads like the core of a competitive national team: Nanyak Dala, Justin Douglas, Ciaran Hearn, Nathan Hirayama, Phil Mack, Mike Scholz—with possible exceptions for the likes of New Zealand or South Africa, no team could withstand such a large hit to their depth without taking a step back.
Last year there was a sense that Canada were successfully identifying new blood, creating optimism that the depth of talent in Canadian Men’s Sevens was at an all-time high. That’s probably still an accurate assessment, but for the moment it hasn’t insulated Canada against a lot of disappointing results.
Keen observers of the team have zeroed in on a worrying lack of speedsters, and that certainly seemed to be in evidence over the weekend in Wellington. Of the injured players, Douglas or possibly Hirayama could help in this regard. But the others? Their return would no doubt address Canada’s issues at the breakdown and on defense, yet they aren’t the kind of fliers needed to back off opposing teams.
All things considered, then, the question becomes: what is Canada playing for over the remainder of the series?
Dreams of automatic Olympic qualification via a top-four series finish were a long shot right from the start, and now they’re officially over. To be fair, of course, there was realistically only ever one spot up for grabs in the first place.
The first fallback option to that is a single North American qualifying spot which will be contested near the end of 2015; unfortunately, Canada suddenly looks to be in the underdog position thanks to the massive leap forward by their main competition—that would be Mike Friday’s USA squad, who finished in the Plate semifinals in Wellington, while going blow-for-blow with powerhouses South Africa and Fiji.
So at the moment, the main areas for improvement would seem to be those which will go on behind the scenes: the continued adjustment to a new head coach, the integration of new systems, and the ongoing identification and development of talented youngsters.
Assuming that Middleton is the right man for the job as head coach (and there’s no reason to think he’s not) and given the pool of talent available in Canada, such efforts can be reasonably expected to produce positive on-field results in the near future—hopefully in time for the aforementioned Olympic qualifiers.
Still, everyone associated with Rugby Canada can be forgiven if a year of behind-the-scenes rebuilding wasn’t what they had in mind after the intoxicating highs of 2014.
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