Canadian women advance, men eliminated at Rugby World Cup Sevens

Only one Canadian team is left standing after the first day of play at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town, South Africa.

Canada's women routed China 24-5 to advance to the quarter-finals, while the men were eliminated in a 19-12 Round of 16 loss to France after beating Zimbabwe earlier in the day.

The women will face the U.S. on Saturday at 4:05 p.m. ET with a spot in the semifinals and the chance to play for a medal on the line. The men move into the seeding bracket, known as the Challenge Cup, where they'll face either Australia or Uruguay on Saturday at 5:53 a.m. ET.

The fifth-seeded Canadian women surrendered a first-minute try to No. 12 China but never conceded again, ripping off 24 straight points thanks to four tries and two conversions.

Breanne Nicholas, Florence Symonds, Keyara Wardley and Krissy Scurfield were the scorers for Canada, while Olivia Apps and Nicholas each contributed a conversion.

WATCH | Canada advances with win over China:

The Canadian women, runner-up to New Zealand at the 2013 event in Moscow, finished seventh four years ago. But there has been massive turnover in the program since last summer's Tokyo Olympics where the Canadians — bronze medallists at the 2016 Rio Games — finished ninth overall.

The women are coming off a fourth-place showing at the Commonwealth Games in July in Birmingham, England, losing 19-12 to New Zealand in the bronze-medal match.

The men, seeded 10th, crushed Zimbabwe 31-7 in similar fashion to the women, allowing the opening try before dominating the remainder of the game.

WATCH | Canadian men crush Zimbabwe:

But the script was flipped against No. 7 France. This time, it was Canada's Phil Berna opening the scoring to take a 5-0 lead before France scored the next