How Sophie de Goede's signature kicking tee continues a Canadian rugby legacy

When Sophie de Goede unveiled her own signature kicking tee in September, she had no idea she was following in the footsteps of a Canadian rugby pioneer.

Four decades earlier, in her home province of British Columbia, former Canada international Don Burgess worked on an invention that changed rugby globally. Frustrated by kickers having to use mounds of mud or sand to steady a ball, Burgess set out to create something simpler: a tee that could be used repeatedly and provide a consistent platform for every kick.

Now, the 2025 World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year has become the first player, male or female, to have a signature kicking tee of her own. Its deep-red design is a fitting nod to her Canadian heritage and provides an unexpected connection to the man who helped revolutionise goal-kicking.

The 27-year-old has long stood out on the pitch as a goal-kicking lock forward and had global spectators transfixed as she kicked her country to the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 final at Allianz Stadium.

The image of De Goede lining up a shot at the uprights at the biggest edition of the tournament to date will live long in the memory – even in defeat. Plus, it is not like the 27-year-old is anywhere near done.

At the start of September, it was announced that De Goede had partnered with New Zealand-based kicking tee manufacturer Rugby Bricks to release the world’s first-ever signature kicking tee.

It was an instant hit on social media and, in the weeks since, De Goede has given her international teammates tees and shared videos of them beaming while opening up the boxes. It was the same kicking tee she used to slot two conversions at BMO Field in the 24-21 WXV Global Series win that ended the Red Roses’ 41-match unbeaten run.

And, in many ways, De Goede using her kicking tee in Toronto was a homecoming.

“I wanted to make life easier”

While watching Rugby World Cup 1987, Burgess noted how much time kickers spent shaping heaps of mud or sand for the ball to sit on. So, he decided to make something that kickers could use repeatedly and that would provide a consistent height for the ball.

“There’s no Canadian who’s had a bigger influence on the world game, really,” Gareth Rees, former Canada captain and Burgess mentee, later said. “He’s in every game.”

An all-round sportsman – excelling in boxing, golf and athletics – it was on the rugby pitch that Burgess thrived.

In total, he played 17 times for Canada at full-back across the 1960s, 33 games for his home province and was a staple of the Oak Bay Wanderers for much of his career, before retiring aged 41 with the Vancouver Island Crimson Tide.

Perhaps his most notable achievement on the pitch was kicking British Columbia to an 8-3 victory against the British & Irish Lions in 1966. His efforts were later described as being “as good, if not better, in his era” than those of all-time Canada men’s try-scorer DTH van der Merwe.

Burgess also worked as a high school coach for 35 years and won 11 Canadian Junior Championships at representative level. He also led the Canada Under-21s to three North American titles. He was later inducted into both the BC and Victoria halls of fame. It was a remarkable career, but it was an invention that left a lasting mark on rugby.

The first iteration of his kicking tee was made of styrofoam. It became clear early on that the material was not going to work.

 

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“The first ball I hit, we actually blew the tee apart,” Mark Wyatt, ex-Canada captain and Burgess acolyte, told The Canadian Press in 2023. “It was back to the design phase pretty quickly.”

Soon enough, Burgess adopted plastic and made headway with his design. He even made a version of it where the kicker could stack pieces on top of one another to create different heights. Rees still has his prototype of the tee and described it as being the “size of a dinner plate” and the same thickness.

“He’d bring his pocket knife and we’d trim it down and experiment with different heights,” Wyatt said. “The thing I liked about it is it was always consistent.”

By Rugby World Cup 1991, the International Rugby Board [now World Rugby] had approved Burgess’ invention for experimental use at the tournament. In November, the laws were changed to allow “approved kicking tees” to be used in matches.

Originally coined as the ‘Burge tee’, the invention eventually gained sponsorship from tea brand Tetley. The rest, as they say, is history. Kicking tees are now everywhere in rugby. Something which, ultimately, was the point for Burgess all along.

“I was a kicker and I wanted to make life easier for them in rugby,” Burgess told the Times Colonist in 1998. “That’s all.”

“It’s pretty neat”

Four decades later, De Goede has joined Rees, Wyatt and James Pritchard as an iconic Canadian goal-kicker. So much so that Rugby Bricks chose to collaborate with her to launch a signature kicking tee.

Plus, De Goede receives a percentage of every kicking tee sold.

De Goede was honest when asked about the link between Burgess and her own kicking tee. “I haven’t looked deep into it, but it’s pretty neat,” she said in September. Even so, it cannot be denied that the 27-year-old is carrying on a Canadian legacy.

She is carving out her own place in history, too. In fact, it would come as little surprise if, when De Goede calls time on her playing career – whenever that may be – she is considered one of the best female rugby players of all time.

Her all-round game will be a major part of that legacy. Not many lock forwards look just as comfortable doing the dirty work as they do directing play in the backfield, breaking tackles and, crucially, lining up shots at goal.

More than just part of her role, De Goede is absolutely hooked on goal-kicking. And now, any time she does it, the kicking tee called onto the pitch will be red, and entirely her own.

“I’ve been addicted to the feeling of kicking and the feeling of your foot hitting and striking it so well — knowing that it’s going through and looking up and seeing it fly through the uprights,” De Goede told the Rugby Bricks Podcast.

“Hopefully that movement and that motion of the kick and maybe a little bit of where I’ve come from through my kicking journey can be an inspiration to someone else to, if you enjoy it enough and if you’re kind of addicted to that feeling and that process of whatever the skill or the sport is, that you should continue at it and just keep enjoying it and obsessing over enjoying it.”