Canadian men’s, women’s rugby 7s teams lose opening matches in Vancouver

Both the Canadian women’s and men’s rugby sevens team lost their opening matches at the HSBC SVNS stop at Vancouver’s B.C. Place on Friday.

Canada’s women’s rugby sevens team fell to France 26-14 while the men lost 12-10 to Argentina.

The men’s side briefly took the lead courtesy of a try from Jack Carson, assisted by a behind-the-back pass from Vancouver native Phil Berna, but missed both conversion attempts on their tries.

The match marked Berna’s 50th rugby sevens tournament, with the Vancouver native speaking earlier in the week about how fortunate he feels to be playing in front of a hometown crowd.

Argentina has won the last two tournaments in Vancouver, and are aiming to become only the fifth team in SVNS history to win three or more consecutive cup titles in the same country.

Argentina broke the deadlock with 43 seconds left in the first half with Santiago Mare scoring the try.

Canada responded earlier in the second half after Alex Russell converted after a Canadian breakaway.

But Argentina retook the lead near the end of the match for the victory.

The women entered the tournament in sixth place, having lost in the quarterfinals of the Perth sevens series stop while the men sit in 11th.

The Canadian women’s squad are in Group C and face off against Great Britain later in the day, while the men’s team are in Group A and will take on Fiji near the end of the first day of the tournament.