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Canada’s high flying sevens women have picked up where they left off in Rio, powering to a fine opening day at the Dubai 7s, the first tournament of the 2016-17 for the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series.

After a tight opening with vs. Brazil (won 26-19 after a three try Brazilian pushback leveled things late), the Canadians easily dismissed Spain 27-7 before showing off some hard rock defence versus England in a 24-12 win.

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It all adds up to a pool round win and a quarterfinal match against the Russians on day two (9:22 p.m. PT Thursday).

A year ago, an injury depleted Canadian squad struggled to a sixth place finish. They lost a shocker to open in 2015 to Fiji, then couldn’t eclipse the English in the quarters. They beat the Russians in the plate semis but lost to New Zealand in the plate final.

This year, the Ghislaine Landry-led squad featured nine of the dozen women who wore red in Rio. The only debutant was Breanne Nicholas, who made a fine start and capped the day with a great try vs. England.