Canada women's rugby sevens team starts Paris 2024 with win over Fiji, loss to New Zealand

Canada's women's rugby sevens team began their journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday at the Stade de France with a 17-14 win over Fiji before losing 33-7 to New Zealand in their first two group stage matches.

The first day of the Women's Rugby Sevens Championship was played in front of a record crowd of 66,000, the largest crowd for a Women's Rugby Sevens Championship in history, dwarfing the previous record of 54,498 for a duel between England and France at Twickenham 2023.

The team’s opening match marked the second time the Canadian women’s rugby sevens team has faced Fiji at the Olympics and Canada’s first Olympic win against that nation. Both teams took advantage of good chances down the flanks in the opening minutes, with Charity Williams coming close to opening the scoring by a few metres. But it was Florence Simmonds who broke the deadlock for the Canadians, putting the ball between the posts in the fourth minute. Chloe Daniels’ conversion gave Canada a 7-0 lead.

Playing in her third Olympics, Williams added to her lead in the sixth minute, off a pass from Simmonds, and finished with a slapshot, as she had done so well. However, the conversion was missed, and Canada led 12-0 at halftime.

Fiji scored their first points in the ninth minute to cut the deficit to 12-7. But the Canadians stayed the course, with Kiara Wardley, who is returning to the Olympics this summer, scoring with two minutes remaining. Fiji scored again in the final minute of play, but Canada held on for a 17-14 win.

“I’m so proud of the team, that we respected the game plan and that we focused so hard in this first meeting of the Olympics,” said captain Olivia Apps. “This is definitely a major win. The initiative of these clashes against Fiji has often changed since the Tokyo Games. They beat us, we beat them, and for us today it was really about respecting our game plan and what we prepared for and that showed in this meeting.”

Then the Canadian women’s rugby sevens team took on New Zealand in their first-ever Olympic rugby sevens duel. New Zealand set the tone with a converted first try in the second minute to take a 7-0 lead. Williams responded moments later with her second try of the day, converted by Asia Hogan-Rochester to tie the game. But the Kiwis added two more tries before half-time to take a 197-point lead, and the Olympic champions scored two more tries in the second half to beat Canada 33-7.

“I thought we had some good moments against Fiji this morning and then I certainly saw some good moments against New Zealand in the first seven minutes of the game as well,” said head coach Jack Hanratty. “We didn’t keep the ball as much as we would have liked, we didn’t achieve the goals and targets we set ourselves. It’s a bit like rugby sevens, we can write our own destiny and tomorrow we’re going to go out against a very good team from China. We know they’re good, they’ve been to the World Cup and they played a good game against Fiji today. We’re not going to let other teams dictate the pace of the game, we have to impose ourselves.”

The Canadian women’s rugby sevens team will conclude the group stage on Monday, July 29 at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT. All games are shown live on radio-canada.ca/sports.

For more information about the Women's Olympic Rugby Championship, including results, schedule and more, visit World.Rugby.

July 28 results

Canada 17 – 14 Fiji
Group stage
Articles: Florence Symonds, Charity Williams, and Chiara Wardley
Transfers: Chloe Daniels

Canada 7 – 33 New Zealand
Group stage
Articles: Charity Williams
Transfers: Asia Hogan Rochester

July 29th Schedule

Canada vs China
Group stage
4pm (Paris Time) / 10am (Eastern Time) / 7am (Pacific Time)
Follow the live broadcast on Radio Canada (and follow Radio Canada Sports)

Canada vs (opponent to be confirmed)
Quarter-final or semi-final for 9th place
Time to confirm
Follow the live broadcast on Radio Canada (and follow Radio Canada Sports)

*Please note that the Olympic broadcast schedule is subject to change, but all matches will be shown live and free on radio-canada.ca/sports and on ICI TOU.TV.