Canada's women's rugby sevens team expects to succeed at home

Ghislaine Landry doesn't want home-field advantage to turn into a distraction.

"We learned that lesson the hard way last year, but it's a great lesson to learn especially early on," says Landry, a veteran member of Canada's women's rugby sevens team. 

"There's a massive energy that comes from the fans cheering directly for you and your team. But it does have the potential to distract players."

The HSBC Women's Sevens Series returns to Langford, B.C. this weekend. It will be the second major rugby event in Canada this year, following the men's event in Vancouver in March.

Last year's tournament saw Canada win its three pool matches convincingly, but fall to England in the quarter-finals on Day 2. The team finished seventh out of 12 that weekend.

This season, Australia maintains a commanding lead in the series, having won all three tournaments so far. Canada currently ranks third in the world, sandwiched between New Zealand (second) and England (fourth).

Despite the advantage in the standings, England has been a thorn in Canada's side for the past two seasons. Canada is 2-5 in its last seven meetings, including a bronze-medal loss in Atlanta on April 9. The two countries will meet in pool play on April 16.

"We've played each other a lot and we know that each team is capable of playing some quality rugby if the other team lets them," says Landry, noting that the rivalry predates the "official" circuit.

Assistant coach Sandro Fiorino expects a more consistent effort over the course of the two-day tournament. However, he relishes the opportunity to play in the team's home stadium, located 25 minutes west of Victoria.

"It's great for us to be in Langford. We play on that field [Westhills Stadium] and we understand the field itself," says Fiorino. "It's a turf field, it's a bit tighter, so the style of play, we'll be able to adapt to that."

The Canadian event is the only one on this year's circuit to feature a turf field. Last year's tournament in Amsterdam was played on turf, but it was scratched in favour of Clermont-Ferrand, France.

"Some teams will feel the effects on Day Two...so hopefully, because of our conditioning and working on turf every day, the legs will be fresh on Day Two for us," says Fiorino.

Banner year for sevens rugby

While the priority on the field revolves around coming set on defence, the strategy off the field is on the offensive.

Canada Sevens, the division of Rugby Canada focused on the seven-a-side version of the game, is excited about its two-tournament setup featuring men's and women's competitions going forward.

"I think because the events are so close to each other, it's more of an emotional and energy-based rollover than it is a tangible rollover," says Bill Cooper, Canada Sevens chief executive officer.

"I think what we'll see in Year Two [2017] it will start to have a more tangible impact on things like sponsorship, corporate engagement, the commercial side of the tournament. But right now it's fantastic and exciting to feel the growing consumer enthusiasm for what sevens rugby is and what it can be."

Cooper is proud of the "robust-sized family of sponsors" currently supporting Canada Sevens. "But it's certainly our aspiration to grow it substantially," says Cooper

"Women's sport, in many markets but Canada included, is really just coming into its own in terms of its commercial viability and how much it attracts sponsors. And so the fact that we have a family of that size I think is indicative of that promoting interest, that growing realization that women's sport is an effective way to market to Canadian consumers," says Cooper.

'A pretty big prize' in Rio

Growing both sevens and 15-a-side rugby in Canada will require increased sponsorship and viewership of the sport. There is plenty to be excited about on the women's side, especially after Landry's 500th career point in Atlanta. At the time, however, she didn't know it happened.

"Once the day was done with, I went on my phone and I had a couple text messages from some friends and family and they were the first ones to tell me that," says Landry. 

"I wasn't aware that it was coming, or I was close or anything like that."

For Landry, the focus remains on the rest of the series, as well as the debut of sevens at the Rio Olympics in August. Olympic sevens will run Aug. 6-11.

"At this point there's a pretty big prize at the end of the road this year, so I'm definitely more focused on that. But, I recognize that it's a pretty big deal being only two of us right now [New Zealand's Portia Woodman being the other] that have done it so it is special," says Landry.

Here are the pools for the Langford Sevens tournament:

• Pool A: Australia, Russia, France, Brazil
• Pool B: New Zealand, United States, Fiji, Spain
• Pool C: England, Canada, Ireland, Japan