Canadian women's rugby 7s team aims to build on success, improve world ranking in B.C.

Canada's women's rugby sevens team has a newfound confidence going into this weekend's HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournament at Starlight Stadium in Langford, B.C.

The team put together a dominant run of performances at the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens Qualifiers in Nassau, Bahamas, going undefeated en route to winning the event and securing a World Cup berth.

Taking place September 9-11, the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 will be played in Cape Town, South Africa, consisting of 24 men's and 16 women's teams.

"We're certainly feeling much more confident. A couple of Olympians are back on our squad which is something you can't buy," interim coach Jack Hanratty told CBC Sports. "A lot of our young players have created an opportunity and the evidence is with the number of tournaments.

Canada, currently sitting eighth in the world, opened the Sevens Series with two eighth-place finishes in back-to-back tournaments in Dubai late in 2021. In the new year, Canada picked up a sixth, then seventh-place finish in two tournaments in Spain.

The recent shift for the Canadians has been the returns of Olympians Bianca Farella and Keyara Wardley, in addition to having the luxury of consistency with the lineups in play and time spent training together.

"We've had a lot of different squads together and this is the first time that we've had a squad that has been training together prior to the World Cup Qualifier campaign," Hanratty said.

"It's been great to be able to actually have a proper training block where we've been able to properly work together. Hopefully we'll have a lot more cohesion and momentum following the tournament in the Bahamas."

"We're ready for a pumped-up crowd helping us out!"<a