The next generation of rugby sevens stars and Olympic hopefuls will take the pitch in the NextGen Langford Sevens tournament, taking place during the HSBC Canada Women’s Sevens tournament weekend on May 10-12th, 2019.
The BC Selects will feature against Rugby Canada Development Academy (RCDA) East and West teams as well as USA Rugby’s Girls High School All Americans (GHSAA) over the 3-day tournament. The RCDA West side also features several BC-based players from the Victoria area.
Day one will be played at Juan de Fuca Rec Park in a round robin format with every team getting in three games. Semifinals will be held on day two at Westhills Stadium and be played in-between matches at the Women’s Sevens, with gold and bronze medal games played on the Sunday.
BC Elite Sevens head coach and BC Rugby Development Officer Darcy Patterson believes the BC Selects side will relish the opportunity to compete on a bigger stage.
“This tournament is a great opportunity to showcase the development of female youth rugby while providing these athletes with a high-performance environment to develop and experience what that next level is like. Having these types of opportunities as youth players provides the foundation to be able to compete on the big stage one day and follow in the footsteps of players like Kayla Moleschi, Caroline Crossley and the Levale sisters,” said Patterson.
With the Senior Women currently on the cusp of Tokyo 2020 qualification, lead RCDA East coach Sandro Fiorino is already looking ahead to the 2024 Olympics.
“This is a NextGen pathway event that is building towards Paris 2024. This tournament is a great opportunity for young athletes to get national team experience and play in front of a huge crowd at the Canada Women’s Sevens in Langford,” said Fiorino.
