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<\/p>\nCanada\u2019s losses on Saturday came against the third-ranked United States, second-ranked Australia and seventh-ranked Fiji. Sunday afternoon\u2019s fifth-place rematch against the Fijians marked a rare do-over opportunity, which Canadian coach Jocelyn Barrieau relished.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe talked about playing it again,\u201d she said. \u201cWe framed that whole game about it being our second chance to showcase who we are and what we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada started strong in its final game. Claire Gallagher got her team on the board in the first minute with her first-ever try, then North Vancouver\u2019s Savannah Bauder turned on the jets on a long defensive run that prevented a Fijian equalizer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier when you look into the stands and see familiar faces cheering you on,\u201d said Bauder, whose extensive cheering section included family, friends, neighbours and members of the local rugby community. \u201cHaving that in my heart and knowing when I look up, they\u2019re going to be cheering for me, it\u2019s really what drives me on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
By halftime, the Canadians had built a 19-7 lead with off additional tries by Williams and Carmen Izyk. Captain Carissa Norsten added one more major score in the second half before Fiji made a late push, which came up short.<\/p>\n
Norsten left the final match with an apparent injury later in the second half. Barrieau did not have an update after the game.<\/p>\n
Next week\u2019s stop in New York is a first for the SVNS Series. After missing the two previous tour stops with injury, Williams is eager to get right back on the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just can\u2019t wait to get another opportunity to show everybody who we are and what we\u2019ve actually been working on,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m happy that we will only get a couple sleeps and then we\u2019re at it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following New York, the competition pool expands to 12 men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams for three SVNS World Championship events, starting in Hong Kong on Apr. 17, which will wrap up the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n
After being relegated in 2024, Canada\u2019s men are not playing on the elite rugby tour. This weekend in Vancouver, they\u2019re taking part in a three-team invitational tournament, the Teck Tri-Nations Challenge, as preparation for their final two HSBC SVNS 2 Series events later in March.<\/p>\n
On the pitch on Saturday, the Canadian men won both their games against Japan and Chile. On Sunday, they dropped a 12-10 decision to Chile before taking down Japan 31-7 to win the Teck Tri-Nations championship.<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s elite group, New Zealand will face Australia for first place in the weekend\u2019s final match. New Zealand is the defending champion from Vancouver in 2025, and the two sides have met in the final of all four previous tour stops this season, with the Black Ferns winning three of the four meetings. The United States will play France for third.<\/p>\n
On the men\u2019s side, seventh-place Spain meets No. 2 South Africa after upsetting top-ranked Fiji 24-17 in the semifinal. Spain had not previously finished higher than sixth this season.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
Carol Schram, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s losses on Saturday came against the third-ranked United States, second-ranked Australia and seventh-ranked Fiji. Sunday afternoon\u2019s fifth-place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-523968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}