CANMORE – The list of new year resolutions for Rugby Canada’s women's sevens team includes rebounding from a slow start to the season, earning a top four ranking (but a top six would be great too), and qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
With Paris 2024 around the corner, one player helping to check off the goals is 19-year-old Canmore winger Krissy Scurfield, a top prospect in the sport.
“I really hope our team can qualify and make it to the Olympics. There’s no doubt in my mind we can do that,” said Scurfield.
The youngest member on the national team, Scurfield was called up from the development squad in late 2021 and thrown in against the best in the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Series.
There was a risk factor bringing in the teen who got a late start in the sport, said women’s sevens head coach Jack Hanratty, but the lightning-quick rookie immediately stood out in matches, scored the most tries for Canada last season, and was even named to a “Dream Team” as one of the top performers at a world series.
Now a sophomore, Hanratty says Scurfield's development has the potential to be an important piece of the sevens program and its goal to get back to the podium.
“Krissy is an enigma,” said Hanratty. “We knew that we had a bit of a diamond here, but she was just so raw in terms of her knowledge of the game … but what we didn’t know is we had a professional athlete mindset and that’s what Krissy has.”
A student-athlete for most of her life, especially in hockey, Scurfield's spark for rugby ignited when playing 15s with the Banff Bears girls program in 2018. In a few short years, she went from a high school standout to immersed in the national team's development system in Victoria, B.C., where she attends university.
Scurfield had once thought hockey would be her golden ticket to the Games, but it's looking more likely that rugby will lead her to the biggest stage.
Twelve women’s teams will qualify to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, which includes home country France receiving an automatic berth. The 11 other countries will get quotas throughout 2023 at three tournaments in a crucial ranking system.
When the world rugby sevens series season concludes, teams ranked one to four will have earned an Olympic quota and the top four spots.
The next chance to qualify is at the regional tournaments with one quota being given to North America. Canada and the United States are North America’s strongest teams and should neither country be a top-four seed, they would likely have to duke it out at the tournament.
The final qualification process, the do-or-die repechage tournament, gives the 12th and final Games quota to the winner. However, rankings are extremely important and the winner would get the unlucky 12th seed at the Olympics.
So far for Canada after two world series tours, which were “a bit of a let down”, the ninth-ranked women’s squad has a ways to go to sniff the top six.
“As a team, I definitely think we under performed [in December] and didn’t meet the standard that we were going for,” said Scurfield.
Last season, Canada finished seventh on the top circuit. From 2013 to 2021, the team hadn’t been outside the top four but the program has undergone a rebuild in recent years.
“The goal of this program is not to be an Olympian, it’s to be an Olympian medallist and we’re far away from that at the moment,” said Hanratty. “We’re going to need a big performance in the next few tournaments to get into that top six, but no doubt, we have the mindset to do it and with people like Krissy anything is possible with this program.”
A flash on the field and an impact player on offence and defence, Hanratty said Scurfield’s knowledge grew far greater than any other point in her game.
“She’s gone from an athlete to a rugby player, which is one of the biggest compliments you can give,” said Hanratty.
Next up on the world series, the women's sevens team is in Hamilton, New Zealand, from Jan. 21-22.
