Canadian women miss out on semifinals at Cape Town 7s

Australia, fresh off a fifth straight title in Dubai, downed Canada 26-10 in pool play at the Cape Town Sevens on Saturday to advance to the semifinals in South Africa.

The unbeaten Australian women will face the U.S. on one women's semifinal with New Zealand playing France in the other. Canada (1-1-0) will take on Britain (1-1-0) in game determine which country will play for fifth place.

In the men's semifinals, it's Dubai winner Fiji versus France in a rematch of the Paris Olympic final won by France, and host South Africa versus Spain, runner-up in Dubai.

The South Africa event is the second of seven stops on the 2025 HSBC SVNS season. Australia thumped Canada 39-0 when they met in pool play last weekend in Dubai.

Pam Buisa and Asia Hogan-Rochester scored tries Saturday for Canada, which upset Australia 21-12 in the Paris Olympic semifinal en route to the silver medal.

Australia's Tia Hinds was sent to the sin bin in the first half for making head contact in a tackle on Mahalia Robinson. And Sariah Paki was shown a yellow card 31 seconds later, reducing Australia to five players for almost 90 seconds.

Australia's defence held on, with a handling error by Carissa Norsten ending a Canadian attack, and went ahead 7-0 on a converted try by Hinds with the second yellow card about to expire.

Canada lost captain Piper Logan to a yellow card early in the second half for taking out an opponent in the air on a kickoff. Australia quickly took advantage with Paki scoring a converted try to up the lead to 14-0.

Heidi Dennis and Mackenzie Davis added late tries for Australia. Buisa replied for Canada after winning the ball at the breakdown near the Australia try-line after a probing kick. Hogan-Rochester scored for Canada with time