Cordoba, Spain - The Canadian Interuniversity Sport women rugby 7's team can now clean off the Canadian soil from their cleats after a last week of final preparations in Ottawa. The team has been able to pick up right where they left off after their flourishing time in San Diego, and are now ready for the most challenging part in their journey, the FISU Rugby 7's World Championship in Cordoba, Spain.

After the long process that the entire team has been through, co-captain Michelle Joslin (Guelph) attributes the hard work that the players have done as one of the reasons why they have come so far as a team.

"We have all been given so much responsibility on our own for training and preparing ourselves for this championship, that knowing and seeing that everyone has done their work has helped us all come together," said Joslin.

At the previous two World Championships the Canadian Team has brought home the gold in both Beijing, then Rome, but the new younger Canadian team with no returning players isn't letting any kind of pressure get to them.

"We would like to follow in their footsteps, but at the same time it's an entirely new team. We have new goals, winning is one of them, but right now we are focusing on one day at a time," said Joslin.

Both captains Michelle Joslin and Jessie Wall (Alberta) agree that the teams' two biggest challenges is that the team is young, there are no returning players so this experience is new to everyone, and also that the climate in Cordoba with temperature reaching above 40° C may be a bit hard to deal with.

"We know it will be hot, but we are trusting that our acclimatization training will pay off and that the heat won't be as much as a factor as it could be," said Wall.
After this last training camp in Ottawa, the team is feeling very confident as the set off to Spain. "They were able to achieve all the expectations that were put on them and covered things that previous teams didn't cover until they got to Beijing and Rome" said assistant coach Matt Parrish, head coach of the University of Alberta.

Returning Head Coach Suzanne Chaulk (Ottawa) with already two gold medals under her belt is particularly ecstatic about this team going to Spain. "I'm just really excited about this one. There was a sense of inevitability in Rome, everything just fell into place and went the way we wanted it to go. This one is more exciting because of watching the growth in this team, the expected increase in our competition and seeing how everything has come together," said Chaulk.

The Federation Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU) World University Women's 7-on-7 Rugby Championship will kick off on Thursday July 17th 2008.
For the full schedule and results please check out:
http://www.fisurugby2008.com/en/index.html

CIS Team Canada:

Travelling Squad:

Shannon Court University of Lethbridge
Tiffany Dautremont University of Lethbridge
Annika Eriksson University of Alberta
Michelle Joslin University of Guelph
Ghislaine Landry St. Francis Xavier University
Andrea Letal University of Lethbridge
Ashley MacDonald University of Lethbridge
Amanda Matchett Concordia College
Brittany Orr University of Lethbridge
Dana Stoughton University of Saskatchewan
Jessie Wall University of Alberta
Casandra Wendzich Lakehead University

Staff:
Suzanne Chaulk, Head Coach University of Ottawa
Matt Parrish, Asst. Coach University of Alberta
Carrie Smith, Therapist University of Ottawa

Source:

Matt Parrish
University of Al