Canadian women climb to 5th in rugby 7s standings with season-best 4th-place effort

The Canadian women climbed two places to fifth in the HSBC SVNS overall standings after placing a season-best fourth Sunday at the Perth stop on the elite rugby sevens circuit.

Unbeaten in pool play and a 27-5 quarterfinal winner over Brazil, Canada's winning run ended in a 24-17 semifinal loss to eventual champion Australia. Trailing 19-0 at the half, the Canadians rallied to cut the margin to 19-17 on tries by Shoshanah Seumanutafa, Asia Hogan-Rochester and Carmen Izyk and conversions by Olivia Apps.

A Demi Hayes try with the clock in the red sealed the Australian victory.

Australia, beaten 21-12 by Canada in the semifinal of the Paris Olympics, has now downed the Canadians in each of the three events to date this season — 39-0 in the Dubai quarterfinal and 26-10 in pool play in Cape Town last time out — to improve its career HSBC SVNS record against the Canadians to 26-14-1.

France then defeated Canada 14-12 to finish third for a third tournament in a row. A converted try by Florence Symonds gave Canada an early 7-0 lead only to see the French pull ahead in the 13th minute when Alycia Chrystiaens converted her own try, taking advantage of a Canada error on its own try-line.

Despite missing injured stars Maddison Levi and Faith Nathan, second-seeded Australia held on to edge season-leading New Zealand 28-26 in the final. Tied 14-14 at the half, Australia finally pulled ahead for good on Heidi Dennis's second try of the game.

The 19-year-old Dennis, named player of the final, attributed the win to "just grit, all the way to the end."

"They really made us fight for that one," she added.

It marked Australia's first tournament win on home soil since 2018.

Argentina lifted the men's trophy with a dominant 41-5 victory over