It was a historical win for Canada’s men’s sevens rugby team and Richmond’s own Nathan Hirayama had a leading role.
For the first time ever, Canada is cup champions in the HSBC Rugby Seven Series after a 26-19 victory over the United States in the Singapore Sevens title game. Hirayama, was named player of the match and also was joined by teammate Justin Douglas on the tournament Dream Team. It was the second ever cup final for Canada, whose first final appearance came in the 2014 Glasgow Sevens, which was a loss to New Zealand.
Canada had gone 2-1 on day one to advance into the cup competition then produced huge wins over New Zealand (26-14) and Vancouver champions England (17-5) to advance to the championship match.
“I’m speechless, I’m so proud of the boys. We’ve been working so hard, a lot of us for so long, and it feels so good to put a tournament together and get it done,” said Hirayama. “We got a bit of a kick in the butt last night after Fiji hammered us and it was a bit of a wake-up call. We told ourselves we’d come out hard this morning and we just kept rolling.”
Hirayama, 29, came through the Richmond Rugby Club and also had an outstanding high school career with the McRoberts Strikers where he was coached by his father Garry Hirayama — a longtime teacher at the school and former national team player himself. Nathan went on to play for the University of Victoria and the B.C. Bears. He made his debut with the Canadian Sevens team when he was just 18 and has also suited up for the national 15s side.
Canada reached the semi-final on the back of Hirayama in the victory over New Zealand. He got things going for Canada early on as his lovely side-step fooled the New Zealand defence and he touched down for an early 7-0 advantage.
Despite Regan Ware’s response, Canada would come back strong as Hirayama would grab his second try after taking a John Moonlight off-load, who had been the benefactor of a Justin Douglas line break. Mike Fuailefau extended the Canadian lead to 19-7 prior to the break, before New Zealand hit back through Trael Joess. However, Hirayama would have the last laugh and completed his hat-trick to send Canada into the cup semis.
The final saw the Canadians come flying out of the gates — building a commanding 19-0 lead. The U.S. came roaring back with 19 unanswered points before Lucas Hammond took a pass from Hirayama and broke the deadlock with just 90 seconds remaining.
Day one action saw Canada defeat Russia (28-15) and Hong Kong (34-0) before falling 35-7 to Fiji.
“Coach (Damian McGrath) gave us a bit of (tongue) lashing (after the Fiji loss). We just wanted to make him proud and make everyone back home proud so we just kind of went through the day one game at a time,” added Hirayama.
Canada now sits seventh in the overall HSBC Rugby Sevens standings. The series continues next month in Paris before concluding in London.
