Canadian men’s rugby team ties for seventh at New Zealand Sevens

Canada finished seventh at the New Zealand Sevens Sunday after its second-half comeback fell short in a 28-19 loss to Samoa.

It marked Canada’s best finish of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series season, moving the Canadian men up one spot to 11th place in the overall standings.

Fiji routed the United States 38-0 in the final for back-to-back victories in the World Series. New Zealand won the first tournament in Dubai, but Fiji took the second in Cape Town, South Africa, and the third in Hamilton, New Zealand. The U.S. has been runner-up at all three stops.

The top four finishers at the end of the season secure automatic qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The remaining teams will fight it out in regional qualifiers. Not having the Americans around for qualifying would ease Canada’s path. Canada lost 21-5 to the U.S. in the NACRA Sevens Cup final that served as North American qualifier for the 2016 Games in Rio. The Canadian men then finished fifth in a last-chance qualifying tournament in Europe.

The World Series switches to Sydney, Australia, next weekend with Canada in a pool with the second-ranked Americans, No. 12 France and No. 13 Kenya.

The Canadians, whose pre-season was disrupted by a two-month labour dispute, had tied for 11th in both Dubai and Cape Town — the first two stops of the 10-event circuit.

Canada was relegated to the fifthplace semifinal game against Samoa after losing 33-7 to Fiji in the Cup quarter-finals earlier in the day.