Canadian men's rugby 7s team finish 4th in Poland, move on to promotion playoff

The Canadian Press

· Posted: Apr 12, 2025 2:13 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

Canada scored 2 precocious tries but couldn't drawback Germany, losing 21-19 Saturday to decorativeness 4th connected the last halt of World Rugby's second-tier Challenger Series successful Krakow, Poland.

But the Canadian men had achieved their extremity earlier astatine Henryk Reyman's Municipal Stadium by making the Cup semifinals. That assured them of a top-four decorativeness connected the season, which earns a berth successful a promotion/relegation playoff May 3-4 successful Carson, Calif.

The apical 4 Challenger Series teams volition conflict the bottommost 4 teams from the elite HSBC SVNS to determine 4 spots successful adjacent season's HSBC SVNS field.

Canada, which finished past successful the 12-team HSBC SVNS circuit past year, was relegated from the apical tier aft a 22-14 nonaccomplishment to Spain successful the promotion/relegation playoff past June.

Portugal defeated Samoa 24-19 successful the men's Cup last Saturday portion South Africa won the women' competition, downing Argentina 21-12.

Canada and Germany arrived successful Poland tied atop the standings with 34 points, followed by Portugal (32), Chile (28) and Samoa (26).

Jamie Armstrong, Kainoa Lloyd and Morgan Di Nardo scored tries for Canada, which trailed Germany 7-5 astatine the half. Thomas Isherwood booted 2 conversions.

Makonnen Amekudei scored 2 tries and Bennet Veil added a azygous for Germany. Cedric Eichholz kicked 2 conversions with Max Roddick adding another.

Armstrong opened the scoring with a fortuitous try, touching down a shot that bounced disconnected Morgan Di Nardo's genu and bounced implicit the goal-line. Amekudei answered rapidly for Germany with a converted effort for a 7-5 pb aft helium sliced though the Canadian defence.

The Canadian defenders were recovered wanting again aboriginal successful the 2nd fractional erstwhile Amekudei chopped betwixt 2 would-be tacklers and raced successful unsocial for a 2nd try. Veil took vantage of different spread successful the defence for Germany's 3rd try.

Converted tries by Lloyd and Di Nardo chopped the German pb to 21-19 with nether a infinitesimal remaining.

Canada dropped into the third-place crippled aft losing 28-5 to Samoa successful the Cup semifinal earlier Saturday with Armstrong accounting for the lone Canadian try.

Canada posted wins implicit Madagascar, Japan and Portugal connected Friday to beforehand to the semifinals. Canada defeated Madagascar 29-24 earlier downing Japan 40-10 and Portugal 17-10 successful excavation play.

Canada finished runner-up successful the opening circular of the Challenger Series, beaten 33-7 by Chile successful the final. The Canadians were 3rd successful the 2nd round, defeating Japan 28-15 successful the consolation last besides successful Cape Town, South Africa.

The Canada men won the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens successful November, blanking big Trinidad and Tobago 38-0 successful the final, to suffice for the Challenger Series.