Canada Sevens: Hong Kong claim seventh place on opening stop of Series in Vancouver
- Paul John’s men defeat Spain in abridged competition for confidence-boosting win ahead of Edmonton leg of shortened 2021 Series
The Series has returned this year, although it consists of only two stops, in Vancouver and Edmonton, with Covid-19 ensuring that all other legs were cancelled for this campaign and limiting participation.
After finishing third in their pool on Saturday behind Ireland and Great Britain, and ahead of Jamaica, Paul John’s side qualified for the Cup quarter-final on Sunday.
There they faced Ireland again in the new abridged format of the Series, which, missing heavyweight teams such as Fiji, New Zealand and Australia this campaign, consisted of just 12 teams.
They were narrowly beaten 12-7 by Ireland and moved on to the fifth-place semi-final where they met powerhouses USA. There they fell to a 24-10 defeat and set up a seventh-place play-off against Spain.
Hugo Stiles, Jamie Hood and Max Denmark all went over to secure a 19-7 win against the Europeans, and provide a confidence boost ahead of next weekend’s second series leg in Edmonton.
Free-scoring South Africa claimed the win in Vancouver defeating Kenya 38-5 in only the Series’ second all-African final. The margin of victory saw the Blitzboks set a record for the most points scored by any team in a Series Cup final.
Great Britain, making their series debut, claimed the bronze medal with a 24-14 win over Ireland in the third-place match.
Earlier this month, World Rugby confirmed that the planned Singapore and Cape Town rounds of the 2021 Series were cancelled due to the impact of the pandemic.
