STAY CONNECTED: Have the stories that matter most delivered every night to your email inbox. Subscribe to our daily local news wrap.

Coach John Tait faces tough choices in deciding Canada’s Olympic rugby 7s roster

Jul 7, 2016 | 2:04 PM

TORONTO — After a season marked by injury, Canadian women’s rugby sevens coach John Tait has seen his trainers’ room empty just in time for the Rio Olympics.

That has creates both depth and competition for places. It could also lead to controversy in some quarters when his Olympic roster is announced Friday in Victoria.

For long chunks of the season, a group of players who dubbed themselves the walking wounded spent their days in the gym or at rehab.

Elissa Alarie, Natasha Watcham-Roy and Magali Harvey returned in mid-May from injury layoffs.

Veteran Ashley Steacy was the last to return, from a knee injury. A key player on Tait’s roster, Steacy anchors the Canadian defence at sweeper, is a fine kicker and has served as captain in Jen Kish’s injury absences.

Alarie had been sidelined by a knee injury suffered in London last year during the penultimate stop on the 2014-15 HSBC Women’s Sevens Series. Watcham-Roy was hurt helping Canada win gold at the Pan-Am Games last July. Harvey missed three of five stops on this year’s circuit with a shoulder injury after playing the opening event in Dubai in December.

With Tait having had to bring in players to replace the injured, he has more players than places on his Olympic roster. Plus some of the youngsters like Hannah Darling and Charity Williams whom he had pencilled in for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo have stepped up faster than expected.

Put it all together and it means disappointment for some. Especially when the team list comes with the likes of such stalwarts as Kish, Steacy, Britt Benn, Bianca Farella, Ghislaine Landry, Karen Paquin and Kelly Russell among those pencilled in months ago.

According to Le Journal du Quebec, Harvey will be one of the disappointed. Citing Harvey’s father Luc, the newspaper says the IRB World Player of the Year in 2014 — in the 15s version of the game — has been left off the 12-woman Olympic roster.

Rugby Canada offered no comment ahead of the roster release. But a decision to relegate Harvey to one of the four reserves would not be a total surprise.

She missed much of this season and Tait, who included her in his squad in France for the last stop of the World Series this season, may feel he has other more versatile speed options.

The Canadian women will train in Victoria before heading to a camp north of Toronto at the end of July. The team flies to Rio on July 28 with Olympic play starting Aug. 6.

Canada, a medal favourite after placing third and second the last two seasons on the world circuit, opens pool play in a group with Britain, host Brazil and Japan

 

Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press