Asia Hogan-Rochester: 'There’s still so much to give from this team'

Coming into the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup final there is a sense that Canada are still to play their best rugby at the tournament.

Their 34-19 semi-final win over the Black Ferns was close, but there is every chance that World Rugby’s second ranked side could be saving their best until last.

Asia Hogan-Rochester dotted down in the 11th minute against New Zealand last Friday night as the 26-year-old continued to shine for their national side on the big stage.

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Days out from facing England’s Red Roses at Allianz Stadium, the wing believes their side is capable of finding an extra gear in their crusade to crown themselves world champions for the first time.

“I feel like we haven’t,” Hogan-Rochester said. “We’ve still seen a lot of great things, but this squad plays without limits. So, there’s no perfect game of rugby but there’s still so much to give from this team.”

When Hogan-Rochester started against Wales in the second Pool B game of the World Cup, it was their first 15s appearance in three months after an outing in Canada’s 27-27 draw with New Zealand in the Pacific Four Series ended in injury.

Only handed a starting role after Fancy Bermudez’s injury against Fiji, Hogan-Rochester has stood out more with each outing thanks to their series of mazy runs and drive to keep play alive.

Due to earn just an eighth 15s cap this weekend, the Olympic silver medallist has enjoyed their time taking Canada back to a World Cup final 11 years after the team’s last.

“A part of me is sad because I’m going to miss the team so much,” Hogan-Rochester said. “We’ve been building towards this game together for the last six weeks, but also over the last couple of years. It’s tough because I’m excited to be able to put everything we’ve been working with on the pitch this weekend.”

Standing in the way of Canadian history are England. It has been nine years since the North Americans last experienced success over the Red Roses.

DaLeaka Menin, Alex Tessier, Olivia DeMerchant, Tyson Beukeboom and Fabiola Forteza are all veterans of that dominant 52-17 win in Utah. There are few faces in the England camp who remember that day too and with almost a decade’s breadth, it does mean reasonably little.

A World Cup is all that is missing from England’s trophy cabinet after a spell of sustained dominance. For Canada, who raised an extra CA$1m to help head coach Kévin Rouet hand his squad the best possible chance of World Cup success this September, it could be now or never to become world champions.

“We’ve had quite a good record of starting matches really well at this tournament, we’ve taken a lot of pride in that,” Hogan-Rochester said.

“We haven’t spoken about that (stopping England gaining momentum early) explicitly but that is a team value we have; being brave from minute one to minute 80. We don’t want to wait to warm up, let’s get going early.”