VANCOUVER – Canada bounced back from an opening loss to Wales with a memorable 14-12 win over Australia on Saturday at the inaugural HSBC Canada Sevens rugby tournament.
The Canadian men, ranked 12th in the overall season standings, put themselves behind the 8-ball in dropping their opener 26-19 to No. 13 Wales on a last-second try after leading 14-0. That essentially meant it had to get a result against No. 4 Australia, a team it had only beaten three times in 42 previous tries on the circuit.
The Canadians did just that thanks to an Adam Zaruba try and Nathan Hirayama conversion with no time left on the clock.
“These are tough games. There’s a lot of even competition and you’ve got to grind it out right to the end,” said Canadian coach Liam Middleton. “What that does show is this group of guys has got amazing character. Sometimes things go against us, we’ve had some hard times, but these guys have a lot of heart and they can pull out something at a critical moment.”
How much heart? Local boy Harry Jones finished the game with a broken nose after a high tackle.
Zaruba, who stands six foot five and weighs 265 pounds, bulled his way over for the decisive try as the crowd at B.C. Place Stadium roared him on.
“I feel like most of the time I usually win the physical battle,” said the big man. “That’s kind of my forte.”
No. 15 Russia was hammered 43-5 by Wales and 52-0 by Australia in the other early Pool B matches
READ MORE: BC Place becoming hub for international sporting events
Canada faced Russia while Australia met Wales in the late games Saturday, with the Canadians needing a win and a bucketful of points to move into the elite Cup quarter-finals for the first time this season.
The 28,000-lower bowl at B.C. Place was sold out, with another 5,000 seats available in the upper bowl. Organizers expect a total crowd of 63,000 over the two days.
“Unreal” was Canadian captain John Moonlight’s take on the festive crowd, some of whom came in costume.
There were beavers, chefs, Lego-heads, lumberjacks, Mounties, pirates, pigs and traffic cones, to name a few. Headgear varied from stars-and-stripes top hats, sombreros and hard hats to Viking helmets and lobster-heads.
As the day wore on, fans partied and danced in the stands.
On the field, it was also non-stop action with the first of 24 games kicking off at 9:30 a.m. local time. As one game ended, the teams for the next match waited in the tunnel to go on. And the squads for the game after that warmed up in the endzone.
There were plenty of individual highlight-reel efforts on the day.
Kenya’s Oscar Ouma left his mark — and a trail of bodies in his wake. American speedster Perry Baker, whose Twitter handle is @SpeedStick, showed off his after-burners. And every member of the Series-leading Fijian team — the Harlem Globetrotters of the sport in terms of invention — showed power, pace and the ability to score.
Fiji scored an even 100 points in its first two games, defeating Samoa 38-5 and Portugal 62-0.
New Zealand and England showed their teeth in an ill-tempered ruck that led to England’s Richard de Carpentier being yellow-carded in a 7-0 win by the Al Blacks.
There were plenty of individual highlight-reel efforts on a day that saw 24 games played.
READ MORE: World Sevens Series rugby set for Vancouver
Sportsmanship is the order of the day normally in sevens, however. Two Scots were sent to the sin-bin in one game for throwing the ball away after stoppages. And when Sam Dickson crunched 35-year-old Julien Candelon with a tackle deemed dangerous and worthy of a yellow card, the All Black was quick to check on the crumpled Frenchman’s condition.
In its first game of the day, Canada led 14-0 on two early Pat Kay converted tries but the Welsh answered with two tries late in the half to cut the lead to 14-12. A long-distance Jones run made it 19-12 early in the second half before the Welsh, utilizing kicks to take advantage of their speed, tied it with a pair of tries.
Canada’s scores were pretty but the home team had eight giveaways and five errors.
“Too many mistakes, including myself,” said Moonlight.
“We made it hard for ourselves,” added Middleton.
Saturday marked the first World Series event held indoors, with the roof closed at B.C. Place due to the drizzle outdoors.
The rain did not stop fans from lining up more than an hour before kickoff. When the action started, there were the sounds of bagpipes from the stands as Scotland played South Africa.
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