Canadian women finish sixth for second week in a row on rugby sevens circuit
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CAPE TOWN – Canada finished sixth for the second week in a row on the rugby sevens circuit, giving up a late try in a 12-10 loss to Japan on Sunday at the HSBC Cape Town SVNS.
It was Japan’s third straight win over the Canadian women this season. The Japanese won 26-19 in pool play Saturday and 21-19 last week in the season opener in Dubai, when they scored two tries in the last 90 seconds to deny Canada a berth in the semifinals.
Australia ran up a 26-0 lead en route to a 26-12 win over New Zealand in the women’s cup final later Sunday, avenging last weekend’s 29-14 loss to the Black Ferns in the Dubai gold-medal game. Aelig Tregouet scored a try with the clock in the red as France finished third with a 15-12 comeback win over the U.S.
Australia tops the women’s standings, ahead of New Zealand and Japan. Canada stands seventh.
Christie Grobbelaar scored with under a minute remaining and Ricardo Duarttee kicked the winning conversion as host South Africa rallied to edge Argentina 21-19 in the men’s cup final at DHL Stadium. Marcos Moneta scored two tries and Luciano Gonzalez added another as Argentina built a 19-7 lead, only to concede tries to Sonwabo Sokoyi in the 10th minute and Grobbelaar in the 14th as the Blitzboks defended their Cape Town crown.
Fiji downed France in the third-place game for the second straight week, winning 26-19.
The New Zealand men, winners in Dubai, finished fifth in Cape Town — failing to make the semifinals after pool losses to South Africa and Fiji.
South Africa leads the men’s standings, ahead of Fiji and New Zealand on points differential.
Kennedi Stevenson and Breanne Nicholas scored tries for Canada in the women’s fifth-place playoff loss Sunday as Canada’s record slipped to 1-4-0. Canada lost all three Pool B matches Saturday, beaten 26-19 by both Japan and Australia before falling 31-12 to France.
The Canadians bounced back Sunday with a 33-14 win over Fiji in the fifth-place semifinal.
Asia Hogan-Rochester scored three tries while Stevenson and Larah Wright added singles for Canada, which led Fiji 19-7 at the half. Hogan-Rochester added three conversions with Savannah Bauder kicking one.
With 21 points against Fiji, Hogan-Rochester moved past the 300-point mark with 312 points, including 44 tries, in 17 tournaments on the top-tier sevens circuit.
In its final match, Canada broke through the Japanese defence in the third minute via the 19-year-old Stevenson. But Japan replied through Mei Ohtani a minute later for a 7-5 lead.
Nicholas outmuscled a Japanese defender to touch down just before halftime to restore Canada’s lead at 10-7.
Canadian Carmen Izyk made a try-saving tackle midway through the second half, winning a penalty at the ensuing breakdown.
But Yume Hirano scored the winning try with the clock in the red, beating a defender down the wing. The play started with a Canadian turnover after Monique Coffey was caught in a crunching tackle in the Canadian end.
Canada lost 19-14 to the United States last week in the Dubai fifth-place playoff.
Cape Town is the second of nine stops on the elite HSBC SVNS rugby sevens circuit this season. Vancouver is the fifth event of the season, scheduled for March 7-8 at B.C. Place Stadium.
The season continues Jan. 31 in Singapore.
World Rugby has revamped the HSBC SVNS format, reducing the field to just eight men’s and eight women’s teams for the first six events of the season. The field then expands for the final three stops, with promotion-relegation in the table.
The Canadian men, relegated in June 2024, are still looking to climb their way back into the top tier.
Having just won the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens in Trinidad, the Canadian men continue their climb up the sevens ladder at the HSBC SVNS 3 on Jan. 17-18 in Dubai.
The Canadian women finished fifth in Cape Town last season. They were eighth in Dubai, fourth in Perth, seventh in Vancouver and third in both Hong Kong and Singapore to stand fourth overall in the six-event regular-season standings in advance of the HSBC SVNS Championship in May.
Canada won bronze at that championship finale in Carson, Calif., defeating the U.S. 27-7.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2025.