CAPE TOWN — Australia, fresh off a fifth straight title in Dubai, downed Canada 26-10 in pool play at the Cape Town Sevens on Saturday to advance to the semifinals.
The unbeaten Australian women will face the U.S. on one women's semifinal with New Zealand playing France in the other. Canada (1-1-0) will take on Britain (1-1-0) in game determine which country will play for fifth place.
In the men's semifinals, it's Dubai winner Fiji versus France in a rematch of the Paris Olympic final won by France, and host South Africa versus Spain, runner-up in Dubai.
The South Africa event is the second of seven stops on the 2025 HSBC SVNS season. Australia thumped Canada 39-0 when they met in pool play last weekend in Dubai.
Pam Buisa and Asia Hogan-Rochester scored tries Saturday for Canada, which upset Australia 21-12 in the Paris Olympic semifinal en route to the silver medal.
Australia's Tia Hinds was sent to the sin bin in the first half for making head contact in a tackle on Mahalia Robinson. And Sariah Paki was shown a yellow card 31 seconds later, reducing Australia to five players for almost 90 seconds.
Australia's defence held on, with a handling error by Carissa Norsten ending a Canadian attack, and went ahead 7-0 on a converted try by Hinds with the second yellow card about to expire.
Canada lost captain Piper Logan to a yellow card early in the second half for taking out an opponent in the air on a kickoff. Australia quickly took advantage with Paki scoring a converted try to up the lead to 14-0.
Heidi Dennis and Mackenzie Davis added late tries for Australia. Buisa replied for Canada after winning the ball at the breakdown near the Australia try-line after a probing kick. Hogan-Rochester scored for Canada with time running down.
Canada's record against Australia slipped to 25-14-1 in HSBC SVNS play.
In a format change, the South Africa event had 12 men's and women's teams divided into four pools of three with the pool winners advancing directly to semifinals. Normally there are three pools of four with the top two in each group plus the two best third-place finishers moving on to the quarterfinals.
Citing player welfare, World Rugby is using the revamped format for the second rounds of back-to-back events.
The rationale is the format is optimal for a two-day event, which allows teams an extra day of recovery and preparation following the previous weekend’s event and subsequent travel.
The four pool winners progress to the cup semifinals. The second-placed teams enter the fifth- to eighth-place playoffs and the third-placed teams in to the ninth- to 12th-place play offs.
The revised format will also be used in Singapore, which takes place one week after Hong Kong.
Australia won the HSBC SVNS championship in June in Madrid, beating New Zealand in the semifinal and France in the final. The Australians had lost the season league title to New Zealand in a 31-21 loss at the previous event in Singapore in May.
Canada finished fourth in Madrid and fifth in the 2024 overall season standings.
The Canadians opened Saturday with a 43-17 romp over Brazil for a second win over the South Americans in as many weeks,
Norsten scored two tries and Buisa, Logan, Robinson, Monique Coffey and Savannah Bauder added tries for Canada, which led 24-5 at the half. Bauder booted two conversions with Hogan-Rochester and Breanne Nicholas adding one apiece.
Canada improved its all-time record against Brazil to 19-0-1.
Australia opened with a 45-5 win over Brazil with Maddison Levi accounting for three of the seven Australian tries.
Australia's women were coming off a 28-24 win over New Zealand in the Dubai final. Canada lost 24-22 to Japan in the seventh-place playoff to cap a 1-4-0 tournament.
The Brazilians finished ninth in Dubai, losing 38-12 to Canada in pool play.
After Cape Town, the circuit moves to Perth, Australia (Jan. 24-26), Vancouver (Feb. 21-23), Hong Kong (March 28-30) and Singapore (April 5-6) to decide the HSBC SVNS league winners, before the May 3-4 HSBC SVNS World Championship at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif.
The top eight men's and women's teams will then compete in the winner-take-all championship in California while the bottom four teams join the top four from the second-tier Challenger Series in a promotion-relegation playoff.
Relegated in June, the Canadian men had been a core team on the top sevens circuit since 2012-13 and lifted the trophy in Singapore in 2017. They finished eighth in Tokyo's Olympic Games.
The Canadian men won their way on to World Rugby's second-tier Challenger Series last month when they won the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens in Trinidad.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2024
The Canadian Press
