Canada names official Olympic rugby sevens roster; Magali Harvey left off the list

John Tait said he has probably spent more time with the women on the Canadian rugby sevens team than he has with his own three daughters over the last few years. The team has become a family in pursuit of their Olympic dream.

That’s what made cutting down a list of about 20 names to 12 so challenging for the head coach. With this being the Olympic Games, he said there was “massive pressure" to get his 12-person squad heading to Rio right.

“While there was 12 really great conversations, getting to tell the athletes they’re realizing their dream, there was four extremely difficult ones and painful ones to have to tell those girls that they’re reserves at this time,” he said.

The 12-player squad includes national team staples such as captain Jen Kish, Ghislaine Landry, Kelly Russell, Ashley Stacey and Karen Paquin, but one surprising omission was Quebec’s Magali Harvey.

Tait said the staff chose players based on “form not potential form.”

“It was really important for us going into the Olympics to pick the best team that’s performing at a consistent level and executing their role on the field consistently as well.”

Harvey, who hails from Quebec City and was voted the world's top 15s player in 2014 -- a year that included a celebrated length-of-the-field try in the World Cup. Harvey, instead, was named as one of the four reserves, along with Elissa Alarie, Julia Greenshields and Sara Kaljuvee. Two reserves will be part of a  training camp in Toronto ahead of the Games, while one — yet to be named – will make the trip to Rio as an extra.

The team will have the option to substitute for an injured player in the first two days of the three-day Olympic tournament.

“A lot of experience in that reserve group; a lot of ability in that reserve group, and we have every confidence that any one of them can come in as a replacement and get the job done and contribute positively to what we’re going there for, which is to medal,” Tait said.

The Journal de Quebec, a French publication, first reported Harvey would not be named to the squad on Thursday. The newspaper quoted Harvey’s father in French calling the move a “bogus decision."

Tait said the emergence of players like Britt Benn and the return of Stacey, who missed the entire World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series season with an injury, pushed some people down the depth chart. Harvey was on the squad that won Pan Am gold in Toronto last summer, but missed all but two series events this season after an injury sidelined her for more than five months.

Heading to Rio, however, is a blend of veteran experience along with young, future stars such as Charity Williams, 19, and Hannah Darling, 20, who represented Canada at the Youth Olympic Games in 2014.

Canada’s women’s rugby sevens squad enters the Olympics as the third-ranked team after finishing the Sevens Series behind only Australia and New Zealand. For Canada, coming home from Rio without a medal would be considered a massive disappointment.

“We have high expectations of ourselves because of the last few years, the way we’ve been building results and belief in the program and what we’re capable of — so there’s a high expectation from the outside and from the inside of what we want to do,” Tait said.

This will be the first time rugby sevens is contested at the Olympic Games. The tournament kicks off on the first day of the Games. Canada has been drawn into Pool C, which includes host Brazil, Japan and Great Britain.

Official Canadian team: Britt Benn, Hannah Darling, Bianca Farella, Jen Kish (captain), Ghislaine Landry, Megan Lukan, Kayla Moleschi, Karen Paquin, Kelly Russell, Ashley Steacy, Natasha Watcham-Roy, Charity Williams.