Canada Sevens: New Zealand beat Australia to take honours as hosts stun South Africa to claim bronze
- New Zealand stay top of the World Series pile after a third gold medal of the series
- Canada’s best finish at a sevens vaults them up the standings
New Zealand claimed the Canada Sevens on Sunday evening with a narrow win over Australia in the final at BC Place, Vancouver. But it was Canada who provided the story of their home sevens as they stunned South Africa 26-19 in the bronze medal match to claim a fine third-place finish.
New Zealand scored while Australia were reduced to five men in a 17-14 comeback win to claim their third title of this year’s World Rugby Sevens Series.
Joe Ravouvou scored the second of his two tries while Australia’s Maurice Longbottom and Lachie Miller were in the sin-bin and New Zealand held on to win, though they ended the game with six players after Scott Dixon was also shown a yellow card.
New Zealand, who also won the Hamilton and Cape Town legs of the World Series, now lead South Africa by 11 points in the overall standings with four rounds remaining, including the Singapore and Hong Kong legs.
Canada’s stunning run to the bronze medal is their best finish at a sevens since winning in Singapore in 2017 and catapults them into eighth place in the Series standings, as well as providing a confidence boost ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
New Zealand faced a tough road to the final, having to beat Olympic champions Fiji in the quarter-finals and last week’s Los Angeles Sevens winners South Africa in the semis. They won both matches with relative comfort, beating Fiji 17-5 and South Africa 27-15 – reversing the result of the previous weekend’s semi-finals in California.