For the past three years, Vancouver has hosted a stop on the Rugby 7s tour. We went to the inaugural event, missed last year due to traveling, and we’re not going to miss this time around.

Its a two-day event held at the dome, and last year they had over 76,000 people attend across the two days. We went with our friends Katie and Stuart, and had a fabulous time.

It was a beautiful weeekend! Walking over to the dome.

Canada sits 11th out of 18 teams in the overall standings - not great, but about where we normally are. Although last year, we did win the stop in Singapore. So we were hopeful!

we got in right at 9:30 for the first game, and settled in for the long haul. For those not familiar, Rugby 7s is a variant on rugby where they only play with 7 players on the pitch (instead of 15), but play on a full-sized pitch. The game is short - two 7 minute halves, but very fast paced. I think it’s the best spectator sport going, even if you’re not a rugby fan.

Canada was in a tough pool with Australia, the US and Uruguay. Our first match of the day was against Australia, and it ended in a tie. A pretty good result, as we pushed for the tie in extra time, but we actually got screwed over by the ref who made a horrible call that cost us the game.

We watched a whole pile of other games and then the big match - Canada vs. the US. It was a really good game against an in-form team that had won the tournament last weekend in Las Vegas. We played them really tight and we’re in a position to win the game on the last play, but made a horrible error that resulted in a USA win after time had expired.

The dome has all the flags of the participating countries - very cool.

Canada’s last chance came later in the day against Uruguay. We needed a big win (by 40 points) and a USA win versus Australia to advance on the top half of the pool, to compete for the championship. Canada did their part, pushing into extra time for the win by 45. But the US, after looking dominant all day out in a weak effort and lost, leaving us on the consolation side of the pool.

That wrapped up a very exciting, fun first day. Not the result we were looking for, but a fun day nonetheless. We needed up going out with Jo, Stuart and some friends after, making it a long day as well.

Sunday was another early start, with Canada playing in the first game against Scotland. The early start did them no favors, and it was by far the worst game they played all weekend. That loss put them way down, but they bounced back against France and won that game, putting them into their final match, plying for 13th place. Sadly, they had another bad game, losing to Samoa and settling for 14th. should have been much better.

Canada vs. Scotland

The top half of the pool produced some amazing, exciting games and a few upsets. The biggest was probably Kenya upsetting the US to play Fiji in the final. Fiji was rolling however and looked unstoppable all weekend, en route to their Vancouver 7s title defence. They are an awesome team when they come to play.

Canada didn’t do as well as they deserved, but the overall event was amazing. They set a new attendance record with over 77,000 people, and we were loud in support of our team. Can’t wait for next year!