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Canada’s beleaguered men’s sevens program has been dealt a major blow to their plans for the 2017-18 HSBC Sevens Series. Struggling with injures and desperate to regain form after a poor year in 2016, the team has now been informed that their funding from the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Own The Podium program has been cut in its entirety. The result is a loss of $850,000 CAD in support for the men, a significant amount given Rugby Canada’s already strained financial position. A temporary impasse between the players and Rugby Canada about player pay was settled just weeks before the new season.
The men endured a hugely disappointing season in 2015-16, failing to make the Cup Quarter Finals in any stop on the HSBC Sevens Series and then falling short at the Olympic Repechage tournament in Monaco. Liam Middleton was subsequently replaced as Head Coach by Damian McGrath, who has sparked some improvement in the team evidenced by their Semi Final showing in Wellington. Evidently it has come too late to save the funding for next season.
The women, meanwhile, have retained their premier level of support from Own The Podium after their historic Bronze Medal performance at the Olympic Games. They will receive $1,970,000 CAD in funding for next season as they aim for gold in Tokyo 2020. In a statement on their official website, Rugby Canada says they are “still determining the impact of these funding cuts on the Men’s Sevens program for the remainder of the 2017 season.”
