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Canada Column: DaLeaka Menin, the third Canadian woman to reach 60 caps

DaLeaka Menin became the third woman to reach 60 caps for Canada at their final Pacific Four Series game. Credit: Rugby Canada

In the final Canada Column of the Pacific Four Series, prop DaLeaka Menin reflects on the tournament, including a memorable personal milestone, and looks ahead to the next few months as they prepare for Rugby World Cup 2025.

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Canada’s final game of PAC 4 was particularly special on a personal level. It was my 60th cap, which is a pretty big milestone in the history of the Canadian women’s team, as I was the third person to do it. It’s exciting because we do have some girls who are very close behind me who will also hopefully hit it in the next year or so.

While I’m only the third to do it, I see so many girls that I’m playing with that are going to reach that milestone, and it’s not going to be so uncommon anymore.

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‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

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‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

At the jersey presentation, our head coach, Kevin, loves to put people on the spot to speak on big occasions. I cried a lot! Kevin saves many of his compliments for these big moments, which made me tear up even more, hearing him speak like that. I got to hand out the jerseys to the girls, which was a nice touch.

Going into PAC 4, the general feeling was that it would be great to win the title again; no one goes into a tour like this thinking they don’t want to get that win.

On the travel day, everyone was watching the New Zealand vs USA game, hoping for luck for us, because at that point, there was nothing else we could do. You can’t fault the performance that the Black Ferns put forward against the USA.

We were naturally a little disappointed, but we still came away happy with what we accomplished. We didn’t lose a game, so we could at least carry that forward. I don’t think anyone who watched us during PAC 4 would be disappointed with our performance, but at the end of it it wasn’t in our control for the title. We’re very proud of what we put forward, while being a bit disappointed that we couldn’t win the trophy again.

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There were some lovely moments on this camp when we enjoyed spending time with each other. In Kansas City, we had a massive team room, and there was one evening when we all ended up in there doing different things, whether that be making bracelets, doing puzzles, or playing games.

That was a really fun evening where we all ended up together, enjoying each other’s company. While we were in Christchurch, we went to the hot pools, which was an enjoyable outing.

 

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There were so many moments on the pitch as well, particularly in our intra-squad games throughout the tour. In the moment, everything is very intense, but then you would see teammates make an amazing move, and girls would start cheering and appreciating that, even if we were on the other team.

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After training, those moments reconnecting when we’re all lying on the grass after a tough session are also important. It’s those little moments in between that make the tour so valuable, and are the ones that I personally value the most away from the games.

On the pitch, we started PAC 4 a little bit slowly with our game against the USA. It had been a while since we’d been together, so it took a little bit for us to get back into it. Sometimes that first game back can be a bit rusty; we were happy with the win, but perhaps a little bit disappointed with the performance itself.

The next game against the Black Ferns, while I think we can be proud of that performance, nobody wants to lose, but nobody really wants a tie either. It takes a little bit of the satisfaction away. We wanted to perform for that game, but we came up a little short of what we could have done.

Going into Australia, the girls were really excited to put together a performance that we could look back on and be proud of. You’re proud of every performance if you put it all out on the pitch, but to have one where we knew we came together as a team was important.

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The Australia game was an example of that, we really saw both the backs and forwards come together really well, really good ball movement, and more impactful collisions both in attack and defense than we had at some points the week before. Overall, it was such a good game to show what we’ve accomplished throughout PAC 4. It was also a marker for where we want to start every tour, and overall, it was a very fun game.

When you have a team like ours, who have players who are based across different countries and different setups, be that at a club or training on their own, tours like PAC 4 show what time can do for the team when we have a sustained period together. We’re seeing that with all of the teams that are becoming contracted, and that’s coming out in better gameplay and more cohesion. When Canada have time together, you see what we can produce.

The challenge now is to produce that even when we don’t have time together. Hopefully, that will change soon. The goal is that Rugby Canada will get to a place where we can be contracted, but right now, we need to be able to produce performances with our limited time. PAC 4 was a learning point for what we could do with minimal time, but also what we need to start with versus finish with as well.

I would love to say that contracts will come within my career, but I don’t think that’s a reality. It’s great to be a part of a team that’s in the trenches building towards contracts, but it would be even better to be playing when those contracts do come.

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While we’re not contracted, we are at least paid for our time, and although it’s not much, there are girls who are joining the program now who have never had to pay for a tour or have never not had at least some payment while in camp. There are girls in this team, Tyson and Karen, for example, who genuinely had to put money forward from their own pockets to be able to play for their country.

We are hitting those steps, and it’s great to see that growth. Does it feel like that growth is a little slower than we’d like it to be? For sure. Whenever contracts happen, if it’s not in my career, I hope to be able to look back and know that I’ve played a role in it, and I’m excited to see the girls who will have more resources.

We look at the likes of England and New Zealand, who do have those contracts, and I’m so proud that women’s sport has reached that level there, and I hope that Canada can get there sooner rather than later.

After PAC 4, most of the girls are heading back to their home bases. After spending some time exploring Australia other than just its rugby pitches, including camping around northern Queensland, I’m going back to Canada to be with my family, and I’ll be training by myself at home.

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The last thing that we all spoke about before we parted ways was the amount of work that we have to put in by ourselves. That is hard, training is so much easier when you have friends with you. We’re all in such a good headspace, hopefully, the time we have away from each other will fly by, but we’ll be able to put a lot of work in.

There will be a lot of solo running sessions and time in the gym, and hopefully we’ll find little spaces where we can do some skills. Whether that’s just handling or a bit of tackling, we all have supportive clubs near us that, if we reached out to ask for some people to run some skills with, I’m sure they would help.

We’ll all reach out to each other to make sure that everyone is feeling supported and excited. As final selection gets closer and closer, it’s a little bit stressful, and you need to make sure everyone is feeling supported through that period.

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I find training by myself difficult. I play rugby because it’s a team sport and I enjoy being around my teammates. Even though I would describe myself as a bit of a lone gym-er, I do like to be in the gym with other people to support and cheer each other on.

Motivation can be a little bit hard when you’re on your own, but I think about how hard my teammates are working and the effort they’re putting in – whether that’s girls moving overseas to play rugby, or taking time off work, and other choices and sacrifices to be part of this team.

Whenever I’m feeling a little bit down or lacking motivation to train by myself because I’m tired or sore, I think about the effort everyone else is also putting in, because I have full faith that we’re all working hard. The girls on the team really inspire me with the work they do, and in turn, on the hard days, that pushes me through.

I also want to be able to keep up with our very quick backline and some of our very quick flankers, so I’m doing it so when we come together, it makes it so much more enjoyable because I’m up there with them rather than trailing behind!

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As we move closer toward the Rugby World Cup, the main feeling is one of excitement. In the Australia game, there were moments where what we were trying to do really came through and things were clicking on the pitch.

It built enthusiasm for getting more time together ahead of the World Cup and then being able to take that and play that style of rugby on the biggest stage.

Hopefully, it carries us all the way to the end. We’ve got a lot of work to do before then, but there’s excitement about what we could accomplish over the next few months that will carry us through.

New tickets for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 are now available, with prices starting at £10 for adults and £5 for children. Buy now!

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