Charity Williams: The Test debutant with 10 years of international experience and two Olympic medals

Not so long ago, Charity Williams did not know what new experiences her rugby career could offer. At 29, the Canadian has represented her country in rugby sevens at three Olympic Games. She has the silver and bronze medals to prove it.

This weekend, Williams will make her Test rugby debut for Canada as a starter against Scotland in their WXV Global Series opener. It is not often a player makes their Test debut with 11 years of international rugby experience already in the bank. The Toronto-born wing is one of three North American debutants, with her sevens teammate Savannah Bauder and prop forward Sophie McDonald in line for their first caps from the replacements.

Williams is the last remaining player from the Canada squad that claimed Olympic bronze at the 2016 Games in Rio. She played in a team alongside the likes of Bianca Farella, Jen Kish and Ghislaine Landry. All three, you would have to think, have a claim to be in any all-time women’s rugby sevens dream team. As such, she is the only Canadian to have two Olympic medals in rugby sevens.

That is what makes her international XVs debut this weekend so intriguing. Since her mid-teens, Williams has been part of the furniture in Canada’s Sevens set-up. In recent months, she has not only put her hand up to join last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup runners-up, but has also enjoyed a stint in Japan with Yokohama TKM in the Taiyo Life Women’s Sevens Series.

“Over the last few years, I’ve been like; okay, am I getting close to hanging up the boots?” Williams told RugbyPass. “Then something just really fun comes up. I started playing in Japan. I went to university. Now I’m playing international XVs.”

After Canada’s silver medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the world opened up a little more for its players. From that point on, there was greater freedom for players to move between sevens and XVs, alongside a better understanding between coaches about what was strategically important for their respective programmes. There is little doubt it has helped women’s rugby in the country flourish.

Having initially watched from afar while she worked out how playing XVs alongside her SVNS commitments could aid her career, Williams is now all in. And loving it.

“It’s just being given the opportunity,” Williams said. “After Paris we stepped into this decentralised model, and it gave people opportunities. I just thought, why not say yes to whatever pops up?

“I never really saw myself playing anywhere other than Canada, so playing in Japan was really awesome. Since I was maybe 15, I’ve only been on one team, the national team. It has been really cool to have different coaches, different teammates and just experience life.

“It kind of feels like, why didn’t I do this earlier? It has been honestly life changing.”

As Williams alluded to, she has seen plenty of her sevens teammates flourish in the 15-a-side game since the ‘One Squad’ model was introduced.

Last season, Olivia Apps was not only named JAECOO Premiership Women’s Rugby player of the season as Saracens claimed a league title, but she also helped Canada to a third-place finish at the HSBC SVNS World Championship. Fancy Bermudez, Alysha Corrigan, Pamphinette Buisa, Chloe Daniels, Sabrina Poulin, Claire Gallagher and Asia Hogan-Rochester all got game time across the HSBC SVNS season.

Next season, it is more than feasible that Florence Symonds will do the same after signing for Loughborough Lightning this summer. She started at outside centre in all six of Canada’s Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 matches before returning to SVNS action.

It was also Canada’s success at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 that proved to be a catalyst for Williams. In recent years she had already enrolled at the University of British Columbia to study for an arts degree and helped the rugby team to a U SPORTS title in 2025. But seeing Canada capture the world with their high-intensity style of play really gripped the 29-year-old.

“I feel like I’ve been really inspired by all of my teammates, especially my sevens teammates who’ve transitioned into the ‘One Squad’ model,” Williams explained.

“The World Cup just looked like so much fun, and such a cool opportunity. I saw how much my teammates had grown and progressed in their game and in their skill. It made me feel like I could do that too.

“My best friend, Asia [Hogan-Rochester], I message them all of the time and they message me because 15s is new for them too. They’d be messaging me like, this is crazy and all of the things they are learning. I got a really good taste of it.

“And, obviously, Flo [Symonds] and Liv Apps. People I’ve played rugby with for so long. They’ve given me a lot of tips, and they’ve been really supportive and patient with me, answering all my questions.

“It’s crazy, because I’ve been playing for a really long time and I’m experienced, but on this side of the game I’m kind of new.”

“I think the first time we chatted was maybe even two years ago,” Rouet said in his Thursday press briefing. “All her teammates have been doing both sevens and XVs, and she is from the old generation where it [sevens and XVs] was completely split – she’s been processing if it is good or bad.

“We had those conversations about that it was going to be good for both of her games. She’s going to be great. She refused Ultimate Sevens to come to the XVs, so it shows she wants to do it.”

It is hard for Williams to hide the grin on her face when talking about her Test debut. Even 11 years on from her first Canada debut, the thrill is just about the same.

When asked what differences she has found between playing the two formats, she laughed about getting tackled more on the XVs pitch, while also praising the coaching staff for giving her the confidence and pearls of wisdom to improve her game.

Taking on Scotland in Edinburgh will kick-start six testing weeks for Canada. It is a gauntlet that Rouet has described as a “World Cup” to his team, with matches against England and France coming in Europe, before consecutive games against their Women’s Rugby World Cup final opponents, the Red Roses, on home soil. The first, at Toronto’s BMO Field, will break the attendance record for a standalone women’s rugby fixture in North America.

All of that is to come for Williams. Because all that matters now is Hive Stadium and starting her Test rugby career in the same way her sevens career did, with a try.

“I’m a little bit nervous, but I’m mostly excited,” Williams said. “In the end, it’s just rugby. I’ve been doing it for a really long time. When I first started training with the team, I was really nervous. I felt like I was taking in all this information and it felt a little chaotic.

“We’ve had some really good training. Some scrimmages with Ireland. Just getting all the details right. I’m just excited. I’m confident.

“I made my [sevens] debut in 2014 or 2015 – maybe in Brazil. I was really, really scared. I had to pretend that I wasn’t, because all of my teammates were the best players in the world at the time. I was so scared.

“I got onto the pitch and scored my first try, and I remember thinking, everything is okay. It’s a really different experience [Saturday’s debut against Scotland]. Debuting with over a decade of international rugby under your belt is so different. It’s a really weird feeling.”