OTTAWA – Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Wednesday Canada’s women’s and men’s rosters for the 2012 World University Rugby Sevens Championships. The fifth edition will be held from July 11 to 13 in Brive, France.
The Canadian women have enjoyed tremendous success over the years at the biennial competition, winning the first two tournaments in 2004 (Beijing, China) and 2006 (Rome, Italy) before finishing second in 2008 (Córdoba, Spain) and fourth in 2010 (Porto, Portugal).
On the men’s side, the Canadians are coming off their best-ever FISU result as they placed sixth in 2010. Canada did not participate in the inaugural tourney in 2004 and finished seventh in 2006 and tenth in 2008.
The women’s contingent will be led in France by head coach Lesley McKenzie from the University of British Columbia, assistant coach Sean McDonaugh from Royal Military College and team leader Rick Farrally from the University of Victoria. Therapist Carmen Chan rounds out the support staff.
A former CIS all-Canadian at UBC, McKenzie played for Team Canada at a pair of World Cups, including in 2010 in England. McDonaugh and Farrally were both part of the Canadian staff at the 2008 FISU championships.
The women’s roster for the 2012 tournament is comprised of 12 CIS standouts and one college star, including Britt Benn from the reigning CIS champion Guelph Gryphons, as well as Saint Mary’s Jean Baker, York teammates Sarah Campbell and Tiera Thomas-Reynolds, Lethbridge’s Shannon Court, Alberta teammates Alanna Fittes and Chelsea Guthrie, UBC teammates Megan Hamm and Gabrielle Hindley, Calgary’s Lizzie Mackinnon, Queen’s Gillian Pegg, Toronto’s Karla Telidetzki, and Dawson College’s Alexandra Tessier. Of the group, Court is the lone returning member from the 2010 FISU squad.
Patrolling the sidelines for Canada’s men’s team in Brive will be head coach Darrell Devine and assistant coach Cory Hector, both from the University of Guelph. Team Manager Brian Spanton and athletic therapist Jami Boyd complete the support staff.
At the helm at Guelph since 2009, Devine gained international coaching experience with Canada’s entry at the Commonwealth Youth Games.
The 2012 FISU roster is dominated by players from Ontario University Athletics, who took nine of the 12 available spots. The line-up is comprised of Sebastian Pearson and Rory Tomlinson, both of the reigning OUA champion Western Mustangs, as well as Waterloo’s Zach Bogdon, McMaster’s Andrew Ferguson, Queen’s teammates Matt Kelly and Liam Underwood, Guelph teammates Adam Maahs, Rob Paris and Sean Sinel, Victoria’s Adam Timler, and the UBC duo of Jonathan Hill and Liam Murphy-Burke. Tomlinson, Bogdon, Timler and Hill are veterans of the 2010 FISU team.
(Source: Michel Bélanger, CIS Manager, Communications & Media Relations)
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