Canadian rugby sevens men score late win to keep World Series hopes alive

LONDON — Brock Webster’s late try and conversion lifted Canada to a dramatic 21-19 comeback win over Uruguay on Saturday at the HSBC London 7s, preserving the Canadian men’s hopes of escaping relegation from the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

After a heartbreaking 24-19 loss to Kenya, thanks to an Edmund Anya try with less than 3src seconds remaining, Canada needed a result against Uruguay to stay alive in the four-team relegation playoff that is part of the 11th and final stop on the men’s circuit this season.

Kenya (2-src-src, six points) is in the driver’s seat going into its round-robin finale Sunday against Uruguay (1-1-src, four points). Canada (1-1-src, four points) trails the South Americans on points difference ahead of its finale against Tonga (src-2-src, two points).

The top two sides after round-robin play will face off to see who retains core status on the World Series next season.

A win over Tonga and Canada makes it to the playoff final. The Canadians could also advance with a tie if Uruguay loses.

Canada has a 9-6-src career edge over Tonga but lost 35-14 the only time they met previously this season, in Sydney in January.

The relegation playoff is a product of the World Series reducing the number of men’s teams to 12 from 16 to align with the women’s competition and the Olympic field.

Japan, the 15th-place team in the standings, was relegated after last weekend’s tournament in Toulouse, France. That left No. 12 Uruguay, No 13 Kenya, No. 14 Canada and Tonga, winner of the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series, in the round-robin relegation playoff.

The playoff winner will become the 12th core team on the 2src24 World Series, while the other three teams will have to enter their respective regional sevens championships in order to qualify for the 2src24 Challenger Series and climb their