Rugby 7s are wild at Rio Olympics
Canadian team playing for a medal in sport's 1st Summer Games appearance
By Scott Russell, CBC Sports
Rugby sevens is fast, ferocious, and the sport is fleeting like every great glory was meant to be. Don't blink or you'll miss it – and if you do, you'll be left on the sidelines for what has turned out to be a sure-fire hit at the Olympics going forward.
"I think once they get a load of this tournament everyone will fall in love with it," the Canadian women's head coach John Tait said on the eve of the Games. "Bet you anything a lot of NFL teams will be drafting Fijians when they see what happens in sevens."
So far the Canadian women have put on a show and in the process hammered host Brazil and Japan before getting punched about by Great Britain only to recover to grind out a thrilling win over a tough team from France in the quarter-finals.
All this action has been crammed into the first two days of the Olympics, and now the team will face Australia (1:30 p.m. ET) in the semifinals today.
'Anything can happen'
In other sports, the tournament can last a dozen (agonizing) days whereas this one's over in three. By international standards, that's an eternity in rugby sevens.
"Anything can happen in this game," said Canada's all-time leading scorer Ghislaine Landry. "Momentum is a big thing. You can have a bad game but you have to brush that off, get yourselves together, and play again in a couple of hours."
What Landry referred to turned out to be exactly the case as Canada got picked apart by the Brits only to regroup and storm past the French to save their Olympic bacon, so to speak.
The tide can turn in a hurry.
Here's the other thing, rugby sevens is the great gender equalizer on any field of play. The women are every bit as tough, graceful, and electrifying as the men. If you can run, tackle, and kick, no one cares if you're male or female in this sport. There's no time to be picky because if you allow yourself to be then you'll miss the thrill of it all.
Olympic trailblazers
And the players are immensely proud. They know they're trailblazers on the Olympic frontier.
"Being part of something bigger is an awesome thing," Canadian captain Jen Kish. "To be here and living the dream with 11 other teammates is truly a blessing. It's an honour to lead Canada to the first rugby sevens at the Olympics."
Indeed, these women will pave the way for others to follow. Not only Canadians but women from nations worldwide who will undoubtedly be attracted to the simplicity of a sport which calls for little more than guts, guile and the ability to run like the wind.
"For me personally it's a dream come true," said superstar Canadian forward Karen Paquin. "As a youngster I looked up to speed skater/cyclist, Clara Hughes and wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc. To me they are the legacy."
Medal or bust
No matter what happens on the last day of the tournament, the Canadian women will play for a medal and leave a legacy themselves. I'm betting they'll win a lot of supporters back home through their exploits here in Brazil.
But make no mistake they desperately want to win a medal.
"It would be a disappointment if we don't," coach Tait admitted freely. "When this team is on form it's next to impossible to beat."
Regardless, he easily distilled the beauty of the game.
Because they play with such a reckless and joyous abandon the players of rugby sevens are bound to be remembered as the wild things of Rio 2016.