For Natasha Smith, the Federation internationale du sport universitaire (FISU) World University Rugby Sevens championship was not just a tournament, but an experience.
Playing for the Canadian women’s team on this stage for the second year in a row, Smith traveled to Sao Jose de Campos, Brazil and beat France to win the gold medal.
France defeated the Canadian team 19-12 in the opening round, but Smith said the team was able to overcome that initial loss before facing them in the gold medal game.
“It was pretty close, but we had a few other games to fix our mistakes and work together,” she said. “We meshed really fast, so we knew it was going to be a good tournament, and then we just came together and ended up beating them in the final.”
Building upon that, she said the team became very close over the tournament.
“We started training camp in Toronto, and that’s where we trained twice a day leading up to Brazil,” she said. “We were all pretty tight-knit.
There were also five national players who train out in B.C. full-time, so it was good having guidance from them.”
Smith said while visiting Brazil was fun, she didn’t get to see as much of the country as she would have liked.
“We didn’t have that much time to see the culture and stuff. We got there, we trained that same day, the next day we trained again, then it was just tournament, tournament, tournament,” she said. “But people were pretty nice and friendly. On the last day we went out in the country, and all the teams, men’s and women’s all had a huge barbecue. It was fun.”
According to Smith, the FISUs are becoming more visible on the world stage, as is rugby in general.
“It was shown on the Rugby Canada website, they kept promoting us, showing our game-to-game,” she said. “Our 15s team just came back from England, where they just won the silver medal. There’s a lot going on, and just rugby in general is picking up momentum.”
After the excitement of traveling to Brazil, Smith has now returned to Carleton to take up her position as captain and veteran of the women’s rugby team.
She said her role is primarily a leadership one on the Ravens, who are waiting for their third game of the season against the Bishop’s Gaiters.
“I’ve already graduated, but I just came back to play. We just became varsity . . . this is our third year of varsity. I was injured last year so I still have quite a bit of eligibility,” she said. “My role [with the Ravens] is more of a leadership role, and I’m able to help the younger players coming in.”
Smith said the team has a lot of young players, but many of them have experience playing at the provincial level. As a result she has a positive outlook for the 2014 season.
“All the talent’s there, and we’re just kind of working together at our system, getting a culture going, and being a new team,” she said.
