Triumphant wins, tough losses for Canada Sevens rugby teams
Published 12:45 pm Tuesday, March 10, 2026
It was a trying weekend for both men’s and women’s Canadian Sevens rugby teams — which both experienced wins and losses — at the 2026 HSBC Vancouver Sevens event, which concluded Sunday at BC Place.
More than 42,000 fans attended the sevens event, where Canada’s Women’s Sevens team — after experiencing some tough results on the first day of the tournament — won both their matches on the final day of the tournament, claiming victory over Japan (19-12) and Fiji (26-19) to finish fifth.
The women’s roster featured South Surrey player and Bayside Rugby alum Shoshannah Seumanutafa, while Bayside and Earl Marriott alum and White Rock native Kyle Tremblay played with the men’s sevens squad.
Canada’s Men’s Sevens team wrapped up the Teck Tri-Nations Challenge competition with a record of 3-1, claiming the tournament title, losing 10-12 to Chile but earning a 31-7 win over Japan.
“I think we showed pretty good resilience in the first two games and then the third game just didn’t go our way,” Tremblay said Tuesday (March 10). “We made some tweaks and then in the fourth game against Japan, I think we really showed what we were about, which was quite nice to see.”
Tremblay said it’s always a pleasure to play in front of a hometown crowd with family and friends in attendance.
“I think we can play a pretty fun style of rugby when we want to, and it’s just making sure all the pieces come together at the right time.”
The HSBC Vancouver Sevens Cup Finals featured New Zealand and Australia on the women’s side, with the Black Ferns claiming the gold medal, their fourth in a row since 2023 and have yet to lose a single game during their dominant four-year run, a Rugby Canada online post noted.
“It’s always nice to win, it’s always the mindset coming into a competition to prove yourself, go through these high-pressure matches and still come out on top,” said Canada Men’s Sevens head coach Christiaan Esterhuizen in the post.
Canada’s Women’s Sevens team head coach Jocelyn Barrieau noted the squad was “down in the dumps” after the first day, “even though the process we followed put us in the right place, but things didn’t go our way.”
“Today was about confirming the fact that we are the fifth-best team in the world and that we are climbing and are going climb. Our goal today was two wins and that’s what we got today,” she said in the post.
The Canadian women will travel to the U.S. next week for HSBC New York SVNS on March 14-15.
Watch them live on TSN and TSN+.