Williams Lake’s Kayla Moleschi and the Canada Women’s Sevens Team captured the Central Coast Sevens title in Sydney, Australia Sunday during an impressive 43-7 win over the Aussie Pearls.
The Canadians controlled possession the entire match, showing an explosive counter attack while limiting the Aussie’s scoring chances with a strong defensive line.
After leading by just 12 points heading into half time, Canada outscored the Australians 24-0 in the final 10 minutes.
Earlier in the day, Canada beat Rugirl 7s 29-7 in the quarterfinals before defeating the New Zealand Wasps 34-7 in the semifinals.
Moleschi, who played through a flu bug during the tournament, said the team put forth a great effort to produce a win.
“Not only did we win but we executed our game plan, which is what we came to do and we’re looking to carry this momentum forward into our first [World] Series round in five weeks time,” Moleschi said.
While head coach John Tait was happy with some individual performances, he was most pleased with how the team performed as a whole.
“Our last two games were by far our best team performances,” Tait said.
“Both the Aussies and Kiwis have some serious talent in their lineups so we needed to connect on both sides of the ball to get the results. The hard work the players have been putting in really showed in those finals.”
Canada dominated the tournament winning all six matches while outscoring their opponents 221-21, a 200-point differential.
The team did not concede a point on day one Saturday and only trailed once the entire tournament.
Canada’s women and Moleschi will now return home after spending the last three weeks in Australia preparing for the upcoming Women’s Sevens World Series.
While they competed in both the Gold Coast Sevens and the Central Coast Sevens, the team also spent a week training with the Wallaroos, the Australian national women’s rugby team.
At the Gold Coast Sevens, Canada and Australia played a three-match exhibition series where the Australians took two out of three.
“The three-week tour in Australia was really productive,” Moleschi said.
“It allowed us to get some quality minutes in before our series kicks off in Dubai at the beginning of December — an Olympic-qualifying year. From those games [versus the Wallaroos] we learned a lot about our opposition and ourselves.”
Tait agreed the tour was a phenomenal learning experience, however, said the team still has much to work on for the coming year.
“We all still have a good deal of work to do to get ready for Dubai but the time here has been well worth it and we are really grateful for the support from both Own The Podium and B2Ten in making this happen,” Tait said.
“The staff once again has supported the team and prepared so well. We are confident we will build from this into the first qualifier in just over a month.”