Canada's rugby sevens teams come up short in Dubai

Canada's rugby sevens women's and men's team came away with disappointing results at the season-opening event in Dubai. The women placed sixth after a good start Thursday, while the men failed to win in three games.

The women have qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics but are using the HSBC Sevens Series matches to prepare for August Olympic competition in Brazil. The men are hoping to build through the series towards a final Olympic qualifying opportunity in March.

Canada's women finished a disappointing sixth Friday as Australia, beating a surprising Russian rugby team, won the tournamenet.

After winning two of three games Thursday, the Canadians lost 17-12 to England in the quarter-finals to open play Friday. That dropped them into the consolation round and, after a 21-12 win over Spain, they were beaten by 24-19 in extra time by defending Series champion New Zealand in the Plate final.

"We are all pretty disappointed with ourselves, we only really performed in patches throughout the tournament, even in the big win over U.S.A., at the end of Day 1," said Canadian coach John Tait, referencing Thursday's 35-5 win over the Americans.

"It's especially frustrating because we felt coming into the tournament that although we are missing a half-dozen players from our last tournaments — Pan Am Games and Amsterdam — there was still enough quality in this side to finish better than we did."

"However, I was proud of our last performance against New Zealand ... Had we started the tournament with that kind of focus and resilience we might have placed better overall."

The Canadian women, who placed second in the overall standings last season, came to the tournament without the services of Ghislaine Landry, Ashley Steacy, Hannah Darling, Natasha Watcham-Roy, Bianca Farella, Sara Kaljuvee, Elissa Alarie and Nadia Popov.

They were missed as Canada finished outside the top four for only the second time in the last 14 events. It also marks the second time in the last four Series events that Canada has been eliminated in the Cup quarter-finals. The Canadian women had made the semifinals in the previous 10 straight tournaments.

There were warning signs Thursday when Canada opened with a first-ever loss to Fiji, which finished eighth in the overall standings last season.

Kelly Russell and Karen Paquin scored tries for an early Canadian lead against New Zealand in the Plate final but the tide turned after Megan Lukan was yellow-carded. The Black Ferns scored 19 straight points over the next three minutes.

Men comes up empty

Canada's men endured a painful start as well, losing all three outings.

The Canadian men were thumped 63-14 by defending Series champion Fiji to open the tournament, before falling 19-14 to Argentina and 21-7 to Japan.

Canada finished last in Pool A and will play in the consolation Bowl quarter-final Saturday.

Dubai is the first stop of the 10-event World-Series, which includes a stop in Canada for the first time. Vancouver's B.C. Place Stadium will host an event in March.

The Canadian men placed ninth overall last season with new coach Liam Middleton — a Zimbabwe native — watching from the sidelines at the start due to immigration red tape. Canada was sixth the previous season under Geraint John.

After losing 21-5 to the U.S. in June at the NACRA Sevens Cup, Canada has just one more shot at a 2016 Olympic rugby berth, via a world repechage tournament. There is no date or venue yet for the all-important repechage other than it will follow the World Series, which wraps up in London in late May.