Canadian women’s team ready for Canada Sevens at B.C. Place

Bianca Farella said she will miss the “intimacy” of ­Starlight ­Stadium but welcomes the greater exposure and equity that B.C. Place will provide to the women’s HSBC World Series Canada Sevens.

The 2023 women’s tournament moves to Vancouver, beginning today alongside the men’s tournament, after the previous seven female Canada Sevens tournaments took place in Langford, which is the training base for Rugby Canada.

“It’s exciting to play in a huge stadium and align with the men’s tournament,” said the veteran Farella, a member of Canada’s 2016 Rio Olympics ­bronze-medallist team.

“We are always fighting for equality. This has been a long time coming.”

Not that there aren’t regrets about the women’s tournament leaving Starlight Stadium. The Canadian women’s and men’s teams train there daily and consider the West Shore as home base for the program.

“We had such fun there in the previous Canada Sevens and will miss the intimate setting and being so close to the fans and being able to interact with them so closely,” said Farella.

Canada will open group play today at B.C. Place against ­Ireland and the U.S. and will meet Brazil on Saturday.

Farella, 30, enters the Canada Sevens as the Canadian leader and world fourth all-time in career HSBC World Series game appearances with 235. From the Olympic medal at Rio 2016, to the current rebuild and longer odds and steeper climb just to qualify for Paris 2024, Farella has been through it all with the national side.

The top four teams at the end of this HSBC World Series seasons will qualify automatically for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Canada, a formerly reliable top-four placer, is in 10th place in the table with it looking increasingly likely it will have to go through the regional North America and Caribbean Olympic qualifier for the first time in team history.

“I have had a lot of success and I feel being a part of this rebuild has also been good for me,” said Farella.

If a late run up the World Series table is to happen, it must start this week at B.C. Place.

“It’s about executing under pressure. We are excited and hungry and have had a really good training block in Langford,” said Farella.

“Being at home is pressure but it’s good pressure.”

The future of the national side is represented by rising young players Krissy Scurfield from the University of Victoria Vikes and Piper Logan from Calgary and the UBC Thunderbirds, who both showed well in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, and have been named for the Canada Sevens. Taejah Thompson, out of the University of Calgary, will make her national-team debut. Balancing out the youth movement are four Olympians named to the team with Farella, Olivia Apps, Breanne Nicholas and Keyara Wardley. Also named were Fancy Bermudez from Westshore RFC, Olivia De Couvreur, Florence Symonds, Alysha Corrigan and Chloe Daniels.

Five players from Victoria highlight the host team roster in the men’s Canada sevens with Lachlan Kratz, Matt Percillier, Jack Carson and brothers Jake and Josh Thiel. Two others play for Island teams with Josiah Morra of Castaway Wanderers and Matthew Oworu of Pacific Pride.

Canada, No. 14 in the World Series standings and coming off a 10th-place performance last weekened in the Los Angeles Sevens, opens pool play at B.C. Place today against Ireland and Australia and meets Chile on Saturday. Fiji is the two-time Olympic men’s champion from Rio and Tokyo.

The men’s and women’s Canada Sevens run through Sunday.