By Canadian Press

Canada opens World Rugby Sevens Series with 38-7 win over Brazil at home field

May 11, 2019 | 4:46 PM

LANGFORD, B.C. — Canada’s bid for a women’s rugby sevens berth in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics came closer to reality Saturday with wins over Brazil and Ireland on home soil at Westhills Stadium.

The Canadian women came into this weekend’s action as the hottest team in the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, winning the series stop in Japan last month.

Canada defeated Ireland 22-5 and Brazil 38-7 in two of its three scheduled games Saturday. Canada was set to play the defending Olympic champion Australians Saturday evening.

The playoff matchups for the HSBC Canada Sevens series at Westhills continue Sunday. 

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Karen Paquin of Quebec City scored two tries in Canada’s hard fought win over Ireland.

“It’s never going to be easy,” she said. “There’s no bad team on that field. There’s nothing easy about it, but it’s super fun.”

Team captain Ghislaine Landry of Toronto and Britt Benn of Napanee, Ont., scored Canada’s other tries.

With the top four teams in the season standings securing automatic Olympic qualification, Canada could punch its ticket to Tokyo this weekend given Langford is the penultimate stop on the six-event World Rugby Women’s Series. Essentially Canada needs to maintain or increase its points lead over fifth-place France.

Earlier, Charity Williams of Toronto scored two tries, while Kayla Moleschi of Williams Lake, B.C., Emma Chown of Aurora, Ont., and Ghislaine and Paquin each scored tries in the victory over Brazil.

Canada led 12-7 at the half but dominated Brazil in the second half with four unanswered tries.

Moleschi said the team had a few jitters playing its opening match of the HSBC Canada Sevens at home.

“In the second half we just came out flying and just put the pedal down because we know we want to deliver a message to the rest of the teams that we’re going to stay in the entire game,” she said.

The Canadian Press