Women's rugby 7s: Instant Profile
The team is a favourite for a medal in Rio
By Callum Ng, CBC Sports
Canada's women's rugby sevens team is one of the sports most consistently high-performing teams, and will unleash on the historic first-ever Olympic tournament.
Famous moment
It's going to seem strange but: finishing second on the Women's Sevens Series after the 2014-15 season. The placing earned the Canadians their historic Olympic berth in the first-ever women's Olympic rugby tournament.
She said it...
- "Sevens is an incredibly hard game, and no matter how fit you are it's going to burn, and it's going to feel like hell. When it's at halftime and you know you have seven more minutes of essentially sprinting to go." - Ghislaine Landry, points leader 2015-16 Women's Sevens Series
What they're saying about them...
- "In the rugby sevens world, powerful men's teams like New Zealand, Great Britain, and Australia have had to make some challenging selection decisions already. The Canadian women's team is in that class; picking 12 players was always going to be hard. This is a deep, deep team. It's the deepest it's ever been." - Patrick Johnston, sports journalist and rugby writer
Strengths
They have been training together, in a group as large as 24 women, since 2011. That is a lot of hours together, getting very good at rugby.
Weaknesses
This season, the team has suffered holes in the roster due to injury, with everyone getting healthy just before Olympic team selection in July. That means the 12 in Rio will have to connect again quickly, the experience is there it'll just be tested.
Fun Fact
The team motto is 'All Damn Day' to encourage their relentlessness and work ethic.
Lives In
The team trains at Rugby Canada's centre in Langford, B.C.