Bring it home!

BC Rugby wishes to congratulate all athletes selected for Canada’s Rugby 7s teams headed to compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Good luck!

Canada’s Men’s Rugby 7s team is making its Olympic debut in Tokyo and features 10 BC-born athletes, including co-captains Nathan Hirayama (Richmond RFC) and Harry Jones (Capilano RFC).

“It’s an honour to compete for Canada at Tokyo 2020,” said Nathan Hirayama to Rugby Canada. “We travel the world representing Canada but this will be my first Olympic Games and we’re excited to get to Tokyo. It’s been an unprecedented year but we’ve been training hard and look forward to competing.”

Hirayama and Jones will be joined by fellow BC athletes Phil Berna (UBC Thunderbirds), Connor Braid (James Bay AA), Justin Douglas (Abbotsford RFC), Mike Fuailefau (Castaway Wanderers), Patrick Kay (Cowichan Rugby Club), Theo Sauder (UBC Thunderbirds), Jake Thiel (Abbotsford RFC) and Conor Trainor (Vannes).

Williams Lake’s Kayla Moleschi (Williams Lake Rustlers) has once again been selected for the Women’s 7s team headed to Japan this summer. Moleschi was part of the side that won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and a member of the team that successfully defended its gold medal at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima. The men’s team won the silver medal in Lima.

We’re very excited to see Darcy Patterson travelling as the Women’s 7s Manager!

Men’s team:

Phil Berna (Vancouver, BC)
Connor Braid (Victoria, BC)
Andrew Coe (Markham, ON)
Justin Douglas (Abbotsford, BC)
Mike Fuailefau (Victoria, BC)
Lucas Hammond (Toronto, ON)
Nathan Hirayama (Richmond, BC) (Co-Captain)
Harry Jones (West Vancouver, BC) (Co-Captain)
Patrick Kay (Duncan, BC)
Matt Mullins (Belleville, ON)
Theo Sauder (Vancouver, BC)
Jake Thiel (Abbotsford, BC)
Conor Trainor (Vancouver, BC)

Women’s Team:

Elissa Alarie (Trois-Rivières, QC)
Olivia Apps (Lindsay, ON)
Britt Benn (Napanee, ON)
Pamphinette Buisa (Gatineau, QC)
Bianca Farella (Montreal, QC)
Julia Greenshields (Sarnia, ON)
Ghislaine Landry (Toronto, ON)
Kaili Lukan (Barrie, ON)
Kayla Moleschi (Williams Lake, BC)
Breanne Nicholas (Blenheim, ON)
Karen Paquin (Quebec City, QC)
Keyara Wardley (Vulcan, AB)
Charity Williams (Toronto, ON)

From Rugby Canada:

The men’s rugby sevens team qualified for Tokyo 2020 by winning the regional qualification tournament, the Rugby Americas North Sevens. Team Canada achieved a perfect 6-0-0 record at the tournament which took place in Cayman Islands in July 2019. The women’s team earned their ticket to Tokyo in June 2019, when they secured the bronze medal at the World Rugby Sevens Series stop in Biarritz, France and finished third in the 2018-19 series standings.

Canada’s men’s and women’s sevens teams last competed this past April in Dubai. Played over two weekends, the Emirates Invitational Sevens was an important high performance preparation event in advance of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Both teams had exceptional showings: the women’s team won the tournament in the first weekend while the men’s team finished in fifth place. In the second tournament, both teams advanced to the Cup Finals and finished in second place.

Both teams returned home from Dubai to the Al Charron National Training Center in Langford, B.C. to prepare for the Games while training under strict COVID-19 protocols.

“Rugby sevens captured our hearts and imaginations during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and maybe even took some by surprise,” said Team Canada’s Tokyo 2020 Chef de Mission, Marnie McBean. “Now these teams are packed with veteran players and we, as spectators, know to eagerly anticipate the speed and agility that these athletes will display in Tokyo. We’ve already talked about it in our house – I can’t wait for our six-year-old to watch rugby on TV!”

This is the second Summer Olympic Games to feature Rugby 7s. Both the men’s and women’s Olympic tournaments begin with the 12 teams divided into three pools of four for a preliminary round robin. The top eight teams advance to the knockout stage, beginning with the quarterfinals. The semifinal winners play in the gold medal game while the semifinal losers play for bronze. Men’s rugby sevens will take place July 26 to July 28 (Days 3 to 5 ) and women’s rugby sevens is slated for July 29 to July 31 (Days 6 to 8). Both tournaments will be played at the Tokyo Stadium.