Another Elite Eight Finish

Vs Australia.  Only two minutes in when Mack stole ball and fed Trainor for the first score, (unconverted).  The first half was ALL Canada.  Early in the second stanza, a Canadian knock on provided the scoring reply for Oz, (converted).  The half continued with advantage Canada.  O'Toole came on, opened with an unforced error then made the play which shoulda/coulda won it all, a quick throw in saw ball to Hearn (so much for him not playing!), who gave it his all and scored near the sticks with a minute left, (converted).  Darn, if not from the kickoff and hooter sounding, a missed tackle saw the Aussies running hard and eventually going some eighty meters to convert for the W.  A valiant effort from all, almost as if it was not meant to be....for sure Australia would have agreed they were very lucky in a game where Canada had the position and possession.

Vs. Wales. Did not view this one and not much to say, except that it looked like all Wales from RC's match report......not dissimilar to Vs U.S. at this stage in the Tokyo Tourney.  It seems as if the boys or psychologists need to do something about the mental aspect when we get let down after giving it our all, not over-achieving by any stretch, rather, high achieving.  Wales and Canada are close in ability, so who knows what went wrong?

In summary, the boys moved up a place overall to seventh, one point behind a flagging Samoa.  They have scored points in every Tourney this season and made top eight in the last three Tournaments. Two observations...Coach John relies heavily on the core group, coach's call but one wonders about possible bench impact ?  Secondly, refereeing seems almost pejorative (still), towards what might be deemed "lesser" teams. In fact, there are very few "lesser lights", almost any given match in Sevens could be a "toss up".  We observe with interest gains by U.S. in the last two Tourneys...pushing N.Z., Fiji, similarly, our boys pushing N.Z., England and Australia.  The Ruggernut is sure he speaks for the Canadian fan base when we say "well done, boys...you did yourselves and the program proud"!