Canada’s title aspirations reached the end of the road at the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament in San Francisco on Friday.
Despite overcoming a 12-0 deficit, the women’s side lost on the final play of their quarterfinal matchup at AT&T Park against France as Caroline Drouin scored the game-winning try to put France up 24-19.
Canadian captain Ghislaine Landry scored a try and had two conversions, while Charity Williams and Bianca Farella added a try apiece.
Lina Guerin led the way with two tries for France, while Marjorie Mayans and Drouin also had one each. Montserrat Amedee and Shannon Izar each had a conversion.
France opened the scoring off Mayans’ try and stretched its lead to 12-0 when Guerin cashed in three minutes later.
Landry managed to close the gap to 12-7 with a score and conversion just before halftime.
Canada grabbed its first lead off Williams’ try to start the second half, but Guerin’s second try and Izar’s conversion put France back ahead 19-14.
Farella levelled the game with less than a minute to go, but Drouin’s marker was the difference maker.
France advances to play Australia in the semifinal Saturday. Canada will face Spain in a playoff to decide fifth through eighth place.
In round-of-16 action earlier Friday, the women’s team thumped Brazil 43-19.
Britt Benn, Kayla Moleschi, Julia Greenshields, Sara Kaljuvee, Pam Buisa, Natasha Watcham-Roy and Farella scored tries for Canada, while Landry had three conversions and Breanne Nicholas had a single.
Teenager Bianca Silva topped Brazil with two tries, Amanda Araujo added another and Isadora Cerullo had two conversions.
On the men’s side, Canada was eliminated in the round of 16 as they were shut out by Argentina 28-0.
Santiago Mare had two tries, while Gaston Revol and Mateo Carreras had one each for Argentina. Revol added three conversions and Mare had one.
Canada is slated to play Kenya to decide placing of teams from nine to 16.
Earlier Friday, the Canadian men advanced to the round of 16 with a 29-21 win over Papua New Guinea.
Justin Douglas topped Canada with two tries, while Harry Jones, Matt Mullins and Connor Braid had one apiece. Nate Hirayama had two conversions.
The Canadian Press
